By-Line: Joseph Bober, FCSO
On November 21, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 12-year-old female for threatening to kill another juvenile female through messages sent on Snapchat. Deputies responded after the victim’s older sibling reported that her sister had been having issues with other juvenile females.
The threats came after the suspect, victim, and a third juvenile female were engaged in an argument in a Snapchat group chat over a boy. After proposing a fight, the suspect sent a series of audio recordings stating to the victim, “I will literally blow your brains out” and “I will literally fucking kill you if you call the cops.” The recordings were followed by a video which showed the suspect walking towards the victim’s house. All messages were captured by screenshot and video recording, which were later provided to deputies.
When deputies made contact with the suspect, she first claimed that she did not have a Snapchat account. However, after she allowed deputies access to her phone, they observed that she did in fact have the app installed and was signed in to the profile shown in the screenshots provided by the victim. She then acknowledged to deputies that she was in the Snapchat group chat but denied sending any audio messages. Deputies, however, determined the messages were consistent with her voice tone, pitch, and inflection.
The 12-year-old female was arrested for Written or Electronic Threats to Kill and was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. Upon being processed, she was turned over to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, who released her to her parents.
“The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office always takes any threat seriously, no matter how old you are. And if you threaten to kill someone, even if it’s over something as trivial as arguing over a boy, we will arrest you,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “I ask parents to be the Sheriff in your home and teach your children that threatening to kill someone is never OK. Teach them how to handle disagreements, especially in relationships. Your guidance and teachings will last them a lifetime. If you don’t, we will, but it’s not what we want to do. I commend the victim’s sibling for watching out for her younger sister and contacting us. She saw something and said something, which is always the right thing to do.”
