TACOMA — Two short video clips provided a glimpse of a 15-year-old Lakebay girl’s nightmare.
While hosting a small gathering Monday in a shed behind her house, the girl was bound with cord, dragged around the shed and sexually assaulted by three teenage boys while her younger sister hid nearby, Pierce County sheriff’s investigators said
The attackers then sent two photographs and two video clips via Snapchat to friends of the victim’s sister, the investigators said. Snapchat is a popular video- and photo-sharing application that deletes the images after 10 seconds.
The girl’s mother later found her semi-conscious in the shed, partially nude and covered in scratches and blood. The girl suffered numerous injuries from the assault and was taken to a hospital, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.
On Thursday, detectives arrested three boys, ages 13, 14 and 17. They appeared Friday before a judge who ordered them all held in Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center in Tacoma. Prosecutors are expected to make a charging decision this week.
The 13-year-old cried and his family said “I love you” as he was was led out of the courtroom. The 14-year-old’s grandfather told the judge he’s never been in trouble before, KIRO-TV reported.
A 20-year-old man with a warrant for first-degree child rape in Mason County was present at the party and also arrested. It’s unknown whether he participated in the assault, but his voice allegedly can be heard in the videos.
Investigators do not know how many people received a Snapchat of the assault but are going through contact lists of the victim and her sister.
To retrieve the video as quickly as possible, detectives used a separate system to film the Snapchat video as it played on a recipient’s cellphone.
The victim’s parents and two of her younger sisters were home at the time of the assault but unaware of what was happening. Two teenage boys attending the party were in the house as well.
In the shed were the victim, her 14-year-old sister, the 20-year-old man and at least four teenage boys, investigators said.
Some of the partygoers, including the victim, are believed to have been drinking alcohol. Investigators said the victim was unconscious at the time of the assault.
“The sister was frightened for her safety and her sister’s safety and hid in the shed during the assault,” Troyer said.
The younger girl was not harmed.
It’s unclear how the boys obtained the sister’s cellphone to send the Snapchat video, but it was not with her permission, investigators said.
One suspect is enrolled in middle school; the other two are not attending school.
