02-14-2016, 03:46 PM
Houston
![[Image: 48510280.cached.jpg]](http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/02/12/teen-satanist-charged-with-best-friend-s-murder/jcr:content/image.crop.800.500.jpg/48510280.cached.jpg)
Police arrested Edward O’Neal IV ^ on Wednesday, accusing him of stabbing his pal, Ryan Roberts (inset), to death and dumping his body near an overpass.
The 18-year-old O’Neal was in Harris County Jail on a $50,000 bond Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for the district attorney said O’Neal was slated to appear in court on Friday morning.
Prosecutors said on Thursday that O’Neal voluntarily confessed three times to the killing, and tried to commit suicide two days after Roberts’s body was found.
While police haven’t revealed a suspected motive or many details of the killing, relatives of both the suspect and the victim say O’Neal was obsessed with the dark lord and have implicated the teen in the gruesome crime.
Authorities began investigating O’Neal after Roberts’s mother, Christina, reported her son missing on Jan. 15 when he didn’t return home from school.
Days later, the horrified mom received a tip about where Ryan might be found and alerted search teams. Christina Roberts says a cousin of O’Neal came to her and said O’Neal confessed to the slaying. The cousin then shared a grisly account of how Ryan Roberts allegedly died.
“He sat there and said that he hit my son in the back, stabbed my son multiple times in the side,” Christina Roberts said at the time of O’Neal’s supposed confession. “My son was screaming and begging for his life and then the final blow was to the neck.” Ms. Roberts said she hopes O'Neal gets sentenced to life in prison or gets the death penalty.
Roberts said O’Neal was so close to her son that he had lived with the Roberts family for a spell—and was even at her home during the search for Ryan. “He sitting here in my house, looking at me in my face, trying to help me find my son,” Roberts told a reporter. “He knew everything and come to turnaround, he was the one who killed my child.”
In January, KHOU interviewed the father of the teen whom Christina Roberts believed had killed her son—weeks before police even named a suspect. At the time, the dad, who spoke anonymously, said his son was a devil worshiper but not a murderer. “They was best friends,” the man told KHOU. “He go to his house, he come over my house.”
The suspect's father said his teen was in a psychiatric ward and has a history of mental illness. “I knew that. He’s worshpping the devil and stuff,” the man said.
Refs:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...urder.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-teen...in-murder/
Police arrested Edward O’Neal IV ^ on Wednesday, accusing him of stabbing his pal, Ryan Roberts (inset), to death and dumping his body near an overpass.
The 18-year-old O’Neal was in Harris County Jail on a $50,000 bond Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for the district attorney said O’Neal was slated to appear in court on Friday morning.
Prosecutors said on Thursday that O’Neal voluntarily confessed three times to the killing, and tried to commit suicide two days after Roberts’s body was found.
While police haven’t revealed a suspected motive or many details of the killing, relatives of both the suspect and the victim say O’Neal was obsessed with the dark lord and have implicated the teen in the gruesome crime.
Authorities began investigating O’Neal after Roberts’s mother, Christina, reported her son missing on Jan. 15 when he didn’t return home from school.
Days later, the horrified mom received a tip about where Ryan might be found and alerted search teams. Christina Roberts says a cousin of O’Neal came to her and said O’Neal confessed to the slaying. The cousin then shared a grisly account of how Ryan Roberts allegedly died.
“He sat there and said that he hit my son in the back, stabbed my son multiple times in the side,” Christina Roberts said at the time of O’Neal’s supposed confession. “My son was screaming and begging for his life and then the final blow was to the neck.” Ms. Roberts said she hopes O'Neal gets sentenced to life in prison or gets the death penalty.
Roberts said O’Neal was so close to her son that he had lived with the Roberts family for a spell—and was even at her home during the search for Ryan. “He sitting here in my house, looking at me in my face, trying to help me find my son,” Roberts told a reporter. “He knew everything and come to turnaround, he was the one who killed my child.”
In January, KHOU interviewed the father of the teen whom Christina Roberts believed had killed her son—weeks before police even named a suspect. At the time, the dad, who spoke anonymously, said his son was a devil worshiper but not a murderer. “They was best friends,” the man told KHOU. “He go to his house, he come over my house.”
The suspect's father said his teen was in a psychiatric ward and has a history of mental illness. “I knew that. He’s worshpping the devil and stuff,” the man said.
Refs:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...urder.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-teen...in-murder/