Six Teen Girls Charged With Homicide Plot

[BEB]

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5995621&nav=1TjD

Six Teen Girls Charged With Homicide Plot

Six girls at a rural high school were charged with homicide conspiracy after their principal found a list of 300 names and officials discovered online postings suggesting they kill people, authorities said Thursday.

School officials said the list, discovered in a classroom trash can, mostly named students and faculty members but also included Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and the Energizer bunny.

Sequatchie County High School Principal Tommy Layne said that he initially considered it a joke, but that authorities then found the ninth-graders' online MySpace pages and postings that included the word "kill."

"In general terms, it was like, 'Let's kill these people,'" Dunlap Police Chief Clint Huth said. He declined to provide the specific wording on the posting, which has been removed.

"I am not saying we thwarted a shooting incident or an act of violence," Huth said. "On the other hand, had this gone unchecked, down the road it could have grown into something a whole lot more serious than a list of names."

There was no evidence that the girls had weapons or that an attack had been imminent, Huth said.

The girls, ages 14 and 15, were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal homicide late Wednesday and taken to a juvenile facility. A juvenile court detention hearing was set Friday in Dunlap, about 40 miles northwest of Chattanooga.

Layne said he learned about the list Tuesday when a "young man came in with his grandmother and said his name was on the list."

No club or group was involved, said Layne, who described the girls as friends. The school has more than 600 students.

Sophomore Lakyn Ledford stayed home Thursday after learning that student-athletes were on the list.

"I was very scared, my friends were scared, that's a scary thing, it can really happen," she told WTVC-TV.

[Roses]

I don't know what was all being exchanged but as I read this my thoughts are that there were one or more who initially started this by saying who would you kill and the list progressed. I don't know if any of them had serious thoughts to commit murder or if they were just expressing themselves as many people do.

[Jackalope]

I don't see how they can be charged with a crime if (apparently) they had no means to carry out the threat they made.

[BEB]

Saw a followup : (which oddly enough was up while the original story was still front page)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070127/...JlYmhvBHNlYwM-

Girls charged in online threats released

DUNLAP, Tenn. - A juvenile court judge on Friday released six high school girls from police custody two days after they were accused of making threatening online posts about classmates, teachers and others, including President Bush.

School officials had also found a printed list including the names of Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and the Energizer bunny. They first considered it a joke, but authorities then found the ninth-graders' online MySpace pages and postings with the word "kill."

There was no evidence they had weapons or that an attack was imminent.

The girls were charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit criminal homicide.

The Secret Service does not comment on investigations of threats to the president, but Sequatchie County High School Principal Tommy Layne said agents visited the school and determined there was no threat to Bush.

The girls were also removed from school and told to take classes off campus, prosecutors said. They cannot have access to weapons and must undergo psychiatric evaluations.

"I think the best thing to do is wait until we know all the facts," said Keith Grant, attorney for one of the girls. "There are two camps on this thing: One is that it's very serious; the other is that it's just goofy girls."

Dunlap is about 40 miles northwest of Chattanooga.