A missing high school football player was found in good health in Washington state Thursday evening, only to be arrested and charged with murder and robbery.
Gabriel Michael Davies, 16, went missing for two days early last week after police found his car near Millersylvania State Park stained with blood and his smashed cell phone, according to Yahoo News.
His disappearance set off an intense search.
Police called the teen’s disappearance “suspicious” but claimed that it appeared that he drove his vehicle to where it was later found abandoned and walked away from it on his own.
The football player was later found and returned to his family. But the story didn’t end there.
As it happens, another person was reported missing around that same time. Friends of a 51-year-old man (name not yet released) called the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department to say that he had not been seen for several days.
When officers went to the missing man’s home, they found him dead from a gunshot wound. No firearm was found nearby, and things in the house appeared ransacked. The police deemed the death a murder as a result of a robbery. It appeared he had died on Tuesday or Wednesday.
After investigating, they determined that Davies and the murdered man knew each other. They felt they had enough evidence to arrest Davies and a friend for the man’s murder.
According to the New York Daily News, the teen’s mother had dated the victim for several years, which is how they became acquainted.
The two teenage suspects were booked into Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center and will likely be formally charged on Tuesday after the courts reopen from the Labor Day holiday.
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