Fredrick Matthew Lochridge, 15, was
arrested Sunday in the murder of his 10-year-old sister, Isabella
Heffernan, after she was reported missing by her family and was later
found behind her home in Fountain.
According to an arrest affidavit
released this afternoon, Lochridge, who was initially said to be 16
years old but is actually 15, admitted to shooting Heffernan with a .22
caliber rifle at around 3am on Sunday.
During an interview with police, the
teenager offered investigators conflicting versions of events,
initially claiming that he shot the girl after mistaking her for a deer.
He later changed his story, saying he fired the gun because he thought someone was attacking his sister but struck her instead.
In a third statement, the
15-year-old said he was teaching Isabella how to use a firearm when he
accidentally shot her in the chest.
When the mortally wounded
grade-schooler started making gurgling noises, Lochridge said: 'I didn't
know exactly how to deal with that, so I shot her again,' according to
the affidavit cited by MyPanhandle.com.
Lochridge then cleaned his sister's
body, dressed her in a white frock and dumped her in a large field
behind their house, according to the document.
The man, also named Fredrick Lochridge, confronted the 15-year-old and handcuffed him, but he failed to tell deputies about what happened.
The 15-year-old initially hid the rifle used in the killing but later told deputies where to find it.
Speaking to reporters this
afternoon, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said they are not ruling
out sexual battery preceding Isabella's killing.
McKeithen said that interviewing
15-year-old Fredrick Lochridge was not like talking to a child but
talking to a 30-year-old murderer, reported the station WCTV.
‘He was a hard core kid,’ the sheriff recalled. ‘He lied. He was deceitful. He screamed. He cursed.’
Isabella Heffernan was last seen alive at around 10pm on Saturday when she went to bed at her family's home on Nonawood Road.
Isabella's family reported her missing shortly before 11.30am the following morning when they discovered she had vanished.
Sheriff’s deputies accompanied by a
K-9 unit, a mounted posse and an air unit launched a massive search in
the area surrounding the family's house.
Shortly before 4.30pm, Isabella's lifeless body was found in a field behind her home.
Sheriff McKeithen revealed that
during the search for Isabella on Sunday, Lochridge's father became
suspicious that his son may have had something to do with her
disappearance.
The man, also named Fredrick Lochridge, confronted the 15-year-old and handcuffed him, but he failed to tell deputies about what happened.
The local sheriff's office is familiar with the Lochridge family, McKeithen told reporters.
Fredrick's mother, Michele
Lochridge, is currently serving a prison sentence after being convicted
of accessory after the fact to second-degree murder in the 2011 killing
of Port St Lucie attorney Ashley Pollow, who was her boss.
Post a Comment