Teen Arrested After Confessing on Instagram to Fatally Shooting 13-Year-Old, Asking About How to Dispose of Body

A 16-year-old has been arrested and charged with murder after allegedly Instagram-chatting a friend to ask for their help in disposing of the body.

It started last week when police in Bensalem, Pennsylvania received a 911 call about a possible homicide, with the caller claiming her daughter had received an Instagram video chat from a 16-year-old acquaintance. Per an official press release, the caller claimed in the chat that he had just shot and killed someone and showcased the dead body on the call. He then asked for help in removing the body. 

Bensalem Police were dispatched to Top of the Ridge Trailer Park at 1446 Gibson Road, where they found Joshua Cooper and a deceased 13-year-old female with a gunshot wound. Cooper allegedly ran out the back of the trailer and hid from police until he was apprehended a mile away at the intersection of Newport Mews Drive and Groton Drive. Police also noticed Cooper had allegedly made a substantial effort to clean up the crime scene.

He was charged as an adult with Criminal Homicide, Possessing Instruments of Crime and Tampering with or Fabricating Physical Evidence. Cooper was arraigned by District Justice Wertman and sent to the Edison Juvenile Detention Center without bail. It was unclear if he had retained legal counsel. His arraignment has been scheduled for Dec. 7.

“It’s terribly sad when a youth makes such a life-changing decision probably based on nothing more than some hurt feelings,” Cooper’s neighbor Joshua Mojis told 6abc Philadelphia. Another neighbor told the outlet, “it’s just sad. They’re kids. Just why? Why’d he do it?”