Two Florida teenagers have been charged with premeditated murder after allegedly luring a 14-year-old classmate into woods, shooting her multiple times and setting her body on fire in a dispute that began with blocked social media accounts and online insults.
Danika Troy was last seen alive on 30 November. Her mother reported her missing the following morning, unaware she had been killed hours earlier. Her charred remains were discovered on 2 December in a remote area off Kimberly Road in Pace, a quiet community 17 miles north of Pensacola.
Santa Rosa County sheriff Bob Johnson described the killing as one of the most disturbing cases of his tenure. “It is bad enough that a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old shoot another 14-year-old multiple times,” he told reporters. “Then they set her on fire.”
Kimahri Blevins, 14, and Gabriel Williams, 16, both former school acquaintances of the victim, were arrested within days. Investigators say Williams stole his mother’s handgun for the attack. A witness told detectives the pair had planned the murder over the Thanksgiving break after Troy blocked Blevins online and called Williams “worthless” and a “gang-banger”.
Johnson said the suspects’ accounts conflicted with physical evidence, but the investigation moved swiftly. Both teenagers have previous contacts with law enforcement, though details remain sealed because of their age.
Prosecutors intend to seek adult trials for the pair, who are currently held in juvenile detention. Authorities have not ruled out charges against parents, particularly over access to the firearm.
The killing marks Santa Rosa County’s first juvenile-on-juvenile homicide since Johnson took office in 2016, part of what he called an unusually violent year.
“You don’t want to go out to see a burnt child with bullet holes,” he said. “That is not something you sign up for.”
