Two baby-faced Florida teenagers allegedly tricked a 14-year-old girl into a wooded area, where they allegedly shot her to death and then burned her body over an argument that started online.
Danika Troy's mother last saw her on Nov. 30. When she didn't come home and her family reported her missing the next morning, around 7 a.m., believing she had run away, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson said at a press conference on Thursday. "Unbeknownst to the mother, Danika was murdered the previous night," Johnson said.
Troy's body was found around 11 a.m. on Dec. 2 in a wooded spot off Kimberly Road in Pace, Florida — about 17 miles north of Pensacola, near the southern edge of the Panhandle.
Grim Discovery
Authorities say it looked as though Troy had been dumped there. Kimahri Blevins, 14, and Gabriel Williams, 14, were identified as the main suspects in the killing, and both are now facing first-degree premeditated murder charges.
Investigators believe Troy was shot several times and had already died before her body was set on fire.
"This is where it gets really horrific," Johnson said.
"It's bad enough you kill a 14-year-old, you're 14, you're 16, shoot her multiple times, then they set her on fire."
Police said the three teens knew each other from school but had a disagreement over Thanksgiving break that escalated badly.
A witness told investigators that Blevins admitted he and Williams had "planned the murder of Danika," originally planning to shoot her only once, according to an arrest report cited by Law and Crime.
Investigators say the two teens allegedly targeted Troy because she blocked Blevins on social media and insulted Williams, calling him "worthless" and a "gang-banger."
According to the report, Williams then went even further when the pair allegedly set Troy's body on fire.
Blood on Their Hands
Later that night, around 11 p.m., Blevins was spotted sneaking back into his house. He told his mother he had stepped out to smoke a cigarette, though she noticed he didn't smell like smoke. Detectives later questioned him, and he admitted that he and Troy had argued and that he had blocked her online.
Williams, meanwhile, broke down crying during his interview with detectives, saying the 14-year-old girl had made "hurtful comments," before he was arrested.
Johnson said there still isn't a "clear motive" in the case, noting that the teens' explanations don't match up with what investigators have uncovered so far.
"This is what Major Crimes calls a groundball, the evidence pointed to them immediately and they took them into custody immediately," Johnson said. "Unfortunately for the Troy family they have to go through this."
Johnson said both teens have had "run-ins" with the law before, though he wouldn't say whether either had been arrested in the past.
He added that investigators haven't ruled out charging any of the parents, explaining that they are "still looking into it."
Johnson also said that the county has seen "more homicides this year than usual," and that Troy's killing is the first "juvenile-on-juvenile" murder the area has had since he became sheriff in 2016.
"You don't want to go out to see a burnt child with bullet holes, that is not something you sign up for," Johnson said.
Officials say they're hoping the two suspects will be charged and tried as adults, given the severity of the crime. "Hopefully, they go to adult prison, which is where they need to go. You do an adult crime, you got to do the adult time," Johnson said.
The two teens are being held in a juvenile detention facility.
