QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. — Text messages exchanged in the days after 16-year-old Preston Lord was brutally beaten at a Queen Creek Halloween party reveal how police pieced together evidence against the seven suspects accused of being involved in killing the Combs High School student.
The 1,100-page police report released this week by the Queen Creek Police Department contains statements allegedly exchanged through social media or text message following Lord's assault on Oct. 28.
The seven suspects who have been arrested in the Lord case include: Talan Renner, 17, Talyn Vigil, 17, William Owen Hines, 18, Dominic Turner, 20, Taylor Sherman, 19, Treston Billey, 18, and Jacob Meisner, 17.
During the months-long investigation into Lord's death, investigators conducted dozens of interviews, reviewed several videos and combed through messages off of cell phones.
One message allegedly reviewed by police apparently showed a suspect confessing to his involvement in the assault shortly after Lord was beaten.
"Got in a fight...killed a kid..guess I don't know my own strength," Renner allegedly wrote in a message on Oct. 28, according to the police report.
A few days later on Oct. 31, a person told police they sent Renner a Snapchat message asking him if something was wrong. Renner allegedly responded by writing, "Everything is going terrible. I can't talk about it on Snap."
A private Snapchat message believed to be written by Vigil allegedly stated, "I hit a kid and this kid feel hit his head and then they kicked his head in the ground then I got word died so idk."
Other text message exchanges reviewed by police allegedly show other suspects discussing the incident.
One exchange involving Sherman and an unidentified person included a message stating, "Talan killed someone with his hands."
Another message in that text thread included a message stating, "Bro that kid died," which was sent on the same day Lord succumbed to his injuries.
Police reviewed the screenshot of a conversation where an unidentified person wrote to Sherman, "Yo tell me you didn't delete the video of the dead kid. It's 10k if you give to the popo."
A conversation allegedly involving a phone number belonging to Meisner included a message stating, "delete everything...vids, text, pics in costumes."
Based on redactions made by police in the lengthy report, it is not always clear on the identity of the author for some of the text messages.
All seven suspects in the Lord case have been indicted for first-degree murder and kidnapping.
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