A high school football player in Washington state who was missing “under suspicious circumstances” over the weekend was found, and now he is being charged with murder.
On Aug. 31, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported the 17-year-old student went missing after he went to attend football practice at Olympia High School, just southwest of Tacoma, but never arrived.
The following day, authorities were notified the teen was seen walking alone alongside a road, and around 10 p.m., he was located by authorities and returned to his family.
When the missing teen was found he was only wearing shorts, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY. He had told authorities he couldn’t remember what had happened to him, but later said “he could not say what had happened to him because people were going to hurt him” and destroyed his phone “because he was afraid that the police were going to find what was on it.”
The same day the teen was reunited with his family, deputies with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department responded to a welfare check to a home in Orting, just southeast of Tacoma, after a man hadn’t shown up at work for four days.
When officers entered the home, they found “a significant amount of blood” around a decaying body, according to court records. Investigators initially thought the deceased person, a 51-year-old man, had died by suicide, but later determined he had been shot and stabbed.
Investigators learned the victim had been in a relationship with the mother of the missing teen, and alerted the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office about the involvement, according to court records. Deputies informed investigators the teen’s car had been located with suspected blood on it and he teen’s cell phone was also found smashed in the road.
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The following day, authorities said they received information from the teen’s friend’s father of a crime the two teens had been involved in. The two teens had been camping with friends on Aug. 27-28, court records show, when they reportedly disappeared late in the night without notice before returning hours later.
Authorities said they had recovered footage from the victim’s security cameras and when observing it, saw two “young skinny males” approach the home close to 2 a.m. on Aug. 28. The males went back and forth between the home before fleeing nearly an hour later.
On Sept. 2, the missing teen’s father reportedly alerted authorities his son was involved in the victim’s death, saying his son’s “biker buddies” told him to steal something from the victim’s home or he would be harmed. The father said his son and friend formed a plan to steal from the victim. When the victim entered the home after the teens did, his son’s friend stabbed and shot him.
The day after the incident, the teen’s father said the “biker buddies” pulled over his son and allegedly smashed his face against the interior of the car and that’s how the blood appeared. The group allegedly then drove him around in a car “roughing him up” before taking his clothes and releasing him.
The two teens were later arrested and admitted to where the weapons used at the crime scene had been disposed.
Both teens were charged with first degree murder, second degree murder, first degree burglary and two counts of second degree unlawful possession of a firearm, according to jail records. They are being tried in court as adults have $1 million bail amount.
USA TODAY does not typically identify minors charged with crimes.
Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.