A Pennsylvania teenager was arrested after authorities accused him of showing the body of a person who had been fatally shot during an Instagram video chat with an acquaintance.
The 16-year-old suspect, who was taken into custody Friday in Bensalem, northeast of Philadelphia, is alleged to have asked for help disposing of the body during the call, the city's police department said in a news release.
The teen was charged as an adult with criminal homicide, tampering with evidence and possession of instruments of crime, police said. He was arraigned Friday night and ordered held without bail, they said.
Authorities were alerted to the apparent killing at 4:11 p.m., when a woman called 911 and said an acquaintance of her daughter’s had called her on Instagram, the police department said.
Police alleged that the teen confessed to the killing and flipped the video, showing the legs and feet of a person covered in blood.
“He then asked for assistance with disposal of the body,” they said.
When authorities went to the teen’s mobile home, they saw someone flee from the back of the trailer, police said. They found a person described in the release as a dead juvenile female with an apparent gunshot wound.
The victim was not publicly identified. Her connection to the teen suspect remained unclear.
The suspect was caught roughly a mile from the mobile home and taken into custody, the police department said. Authorities accused of him taking “substantial” steps to clean up the crime scene.
The teen was being held at a juvenile detention center. It was not immediately clear whether he has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7, court records show.
