The Pennsylvania teen accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl asked his friend on an Instagram video to help him bury the body, covering the victim’s bloody feet and legs.
- Police in Pennsylvania received a 911 call about a possible murder from a teenage girl who had received an Instagram video chat from a 16-year-old friend
- Joshua Cooper texted saying he just killed someone
- He then flipped the picture of the video and showed someone’s legs and feet covered in blood and asked for assistance in disposing of the body
- Bensalem police arrested Cooper who fled when officers arrived
- When officers entered the mobile home, they found the body of a teenage girl with a gunshot wound on the bathroom floor
- Adequate steps were indicated to clear the crime scene
- Cooper is now in custody and has been charged as an adult
A 16-year-old Pennsylvania boy told his friend on Instagram that he killed a girl at his home in Bensalem and then asked her to help him bury the body.
Joshua Cooper has been charged as an adult with the murder of a 13-year-old girl who was shot and killed.
Police in Bensalem received a call about the murder on Friday, with the caller describing how Cooper had sent a video message via social media in which he allegedly confessed to the murder.
During the chat, Cooper allegedly said that he had just murdered someone and then panned the camera around to show the young girls feet and legs covered in blood.
Police in Pennsylvania received a 911 call about a possible murder from a teenage girl who had received an Instagram video chat from 16-year-old Joshua Cooper.
When officers entered the mobile home, they found the body of a teenage girl with a gunshot wound on the bathroom floor
He then asked the teenage girl he had called to help dispose of the body.
Officers immediately went to Cooper’s trailer park home, where they found the teenage girl dead on the bathroom floor with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police have said the victim is not a resident of Bensalem and is not related to Cooper.
When the police arrived they saw how ‘adequate steps’ had been taken to clean up the bloody crime scene.
Cooper fled the scene when police arrived but it didn’t take long before officers caught up with him and took him into custody.
They face charges of culpable homicide, possession of instruments of crime and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
‘I heard gunshots and I know gunshots,’ Charlie Petrie told CBS3. ‘And I come out and open the door and see the boy running out of there. I talked to the guy sitting on the bench out here a couple of times and he seemed upset.
The incident created a stir among other residents.
I’ve lived in Bensalem my whole life and I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a crime scene unit truck really like this, so it’s really rare,’ Caitlin told CBS News.
‘It was an accident,’ Cooper reportedly told police, according to a probable cause affidavit seen by the Courier Times.
During a preliminary interview, Cooper told police that he had been cleaning out his father’s safe and removed the firearms he had kept inside.
According to the affidavit, he claimed to have gained access to the safe by “replacing the batteries his father had removed, which had disabled the combination lock.” He said that he was sorting out the ammunition.
Cooper and the victim spent the afternoon together watching television together before the shooting began.
Bensalem police did not identify the girl, citing her being a minor, but said she was identified by her jewelry.
Cooper was denied bail and sent to the Edison Juvenile Detention Center, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for December 7, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
