A Pennsylvania teenager has been 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 arrested 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 teenager was charged as an adult with criminal homicide, tampering with evidence and possession of criminal instruments, police said. He was arraigned late Friday and was ordered held without bail, they said.
Authorities were alerted to the apparent murder at 4:11 p.m., when a woman called 911 and said an acquaintance of her daughter had called her on Instagram, the police department said.
Police alleged that the teenager confessed to the murder and flipped the video, showing the legs and feet of a person covered in blood.
“Then he asked for help to dispose 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 statement as a dead young woman with an apparent gunshot wound.
The victim was not publicly identified. Her connection to the teenage suspect remained unclear.
The suspect was captured about a mile from the mobile home and taken into custody, the police department said. Authorities accused him of taking “substantial” steps to clean up the crime scene.
The teen was being held at a juvenile detention center. It was not immediately clear if he has an attorney speaking on his behalf.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 7, court records show.