15-year-old girl accused of making school bomb threats

Police search for caller who phoned in bomb threats to 2 high schools

MARATHON, Fla. – A 15-year-old girl from the Florida Keys is facing charges after she had someone call in false bomb threats to two high schools, Monroe County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.

Both bomb threats were called in Dec. 14 to Marathon High School and Key West High School.

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According to Herrin, the girl was arrested at Marathon High School Friday morning just as school was starting.

Herrin said the call to Key West High School was made in error, as the caller thought that the teen attended the school. After the call was made, the teen gave the caller the contact information for her school and the threat was phoned in to Marathon High School, Herrin said.

Both schools were evacuated for several hours after the calls were made and school was eventually canceled for the rest of the day at Key West High School as deputies searched the campus for explosive devices.

"Bomb threats are no joke and we take them very seriously," Sheriff Rick Ramsay said. "These threats took a lot of time, a lot of people and a lot of resources to investigate. They also caused a great amount of fear for parents and school staff. Our detectives have worked hard on this investigation and we will continue to work toward identifying and arresting the second suspect in this case."

Herrin said the teen and a friend told a school resource deputy on Dec. 15 that an acquaintance had made the bomb threat, but detectives said the girl's story about how she met the male caller consistently changed.

Herrin said the girl claimed that she attended school with the caller in another country, which turned out to be false.

Herrin said the teen also deleted a number of text messages between the two.

According to detectives, it was determined that the teen met the caller online and had never met him in person.

The teen faces charges of making a false report of a bomb, obstruction in a criminal investigation, tampering with evidence and use of a two-way communications device to commit a felony crime.


About the Author:

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.