[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
This heartbreaking story out of Pace, Florida, is almost too much to fathom.
Danika Troy, a vibrant 14-year-old girl (pictured above, inset), walked into the woods last week believing she was meeting someone who cared for her. Instead, according to investigators and her grieving mother, she encountered a brutal betrayal that ended her life.
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Authorities in Santa Rosa County, Florida have since charged 16-year-old Gabriel Williams (pictured above, in his mugshot) and 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins (also pictured in his mugshot) with first-degree premeditated murder in Danika’s death.
The accusations are almost impossible to read without pausing. Danika’s mother, Ashley Troy, told the New York Post that her daughter was manipulated in the most devastating way:
“Gabe pretended to have feelings for her. That’s how she was lured.”
So chilling…
A teenage crush is supposed to be awkward and sweet, not the bait in a fatal trap. Ashley’s pain deepened even further when she explained how unbearable questions that remain:
“I still need answers. I’m just left asking why. She just wanted to be in love.”
In case you haven’t been following this story, Danika was reported missing after she disappeared back on December 1. The next day, after a passerby alerted authorities, police discovered her body in a wooded area of Pace. She had been shot multiple times, and her body had also been set on fire. WTF…
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Investigators quickly zeroed in on Williams and Blevins, believing the killing was tied to an online fight that erupted over Thanksgiving break. According to cops, Danika blocked Blevins on social media around then and allegedly insulted Williams, calling him “worthless and a gang banger.”
But Ashley rejects the idea that teenage conflict could ever explain something so vicious. As she put it:
“What those boys said is an excuse.”
Both suspects apparently have had previous run-ins with law enforcement, the Post reports, though the specifics remain sealed because of their ages. For now, they are being held in juvenile detention without bond as the community tries to process what happened.
Honestly, we can’t even imagine going through something like this. To lose a daughter so young, and in such a horrible way — and at the hands of such young alleged assailants, as well. What a terrible, terrible story.
To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence.
[Image via Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office/Ashley Troy/Facebook]
The post Danika Troy Murder: Florida Teens Who Killed 14-Year-Old Girl 'Lured' Her To Death With Fake Claims Of Love appeared first on Perez Hilton.