A 21-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a 15-year-old girl on Friday at her home in Lowell.
Ahliana Dickey failed to show up at her eighth-grade graduation on Friday morning, sending her family into a panic, MassLive reported.
The teen was found shot to death later that day in a bedroom in her family’s apartment.
Police said she had been shot multiple times and they found shell casings at the scene, the report said.
At a news conference on Monday, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan described the desperate effort to find Ahliana.
“When she did not appear at that graduation, the family members who were awaiting her arrival were concerned and began attempting to locate her,” Ryan said.
21-year-old boyfriend charged with killing Lowell teen before her 8th-grade graduation https://t.co/hGmILYlquX
— WBZ | CBS News Boston (@wbz) June 18, 2024
She said Ahliana’s family spent most of Friday searching for her when her grandmother located her and phoned for help.
The district attorney said the family was convinced Ahliana was “certainly hurt and possibly dead.”
Ryan told reporters that 21-year-old Trevor Bady of the nearby community of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was quickly identified as a suspect in the slaying.
Police said they were able to ascertain Bady had taken an Uber to Ahliana’s home on Friday and that he left not long after in the same car.
The driver would tell detectives he had been concerned about the man’s demeanor during their interactions.
The Uber driver was also not the only person who expressed concern about Bady, Ryan told reporters.
Ahliana had confided to friends that she had been dating the man and he had abused and threatened her last week, the prosecutor said.
Ryan said the police investigation had “determined that Ahliana had been the victim of abuse” and that Bady “had been a boyfriend for a while.”
Bady was arrested over the weekend and charged with murder, armed home invasion and numerous gun crimes.
He had an initial court hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning.
MassLive reported that police believed they received a 911 call about the teen’s shooting death but when they arrived at the scene, they found nothing suspicious.
Just after midnight on Friday morning, a person near where Ahliana lived phoned police to say she had heard a woman screaming during an argument in the street.
“The caller reported that she heard that female screaming, ‘Get off me! Get away from me! I don’t want to be with you anymore,’” Ryan said of the call.
The caller reported hearing gunshots at the conclusion of the argument.
A GoFundMe campaign organized by Ahliana’s family is asking for donations and prayers.
Ahliana Martina Dickey https://t.co/bqNkkyra57
— sperkins (@sperkins718) June 17, 2024
Her parents, Scott Dickey and Stephanie Wetherbee, described her in the campaign as “the most beautiful soul.”
“Our family is hurting during this horrible tragedy,” they said. “No parent should have to bury their kid. Definitely not to a monster, coward who took an innocent life.”
