Schoolgirl, 17, and her 19-year-old boyfriend are charged with murder 'after luring female classmate into woods and beating her to death with a metal baseball bat'
A Delaware grand jury has indicted two teenagers for the October murder of a 17-year-old girl who police say was lured to the woods by her ex-boyfriend and her classmate, and then bludgeoned to death with a metal baseball bat.
Annika Stalczynski, 17, and Noah Sharp, 19, have been charged with first-degree murder, possession of a deadly weapon during commission of a felony and conspiracy for the killing of 17-year-old Madison Sparrow.
Authorities announced the charges against Stalczynski on Tuesday, more than a month after Sharp's arrest.
Noah Sharp, 19 (left), has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly beating to death his ex-girlfriend, 17-year-old Madison Sparrow (right), with a bat last month
Sharp allegedly confessed that he and Sparrow's classmate Annika Stalczynski, 17, lured her to this wooded area behind a Newark, Delaware, elementary school and bludgeoned her to death
Investigators said Sharp and Stalczynski lured Sparrow into a wooded area behind an elementary school, beat her to death with the bat, and then dumped her body in a remote area.
While officials have not offered a motive, they did say the suspects and the victim knew each other well.
State Prosecutor AJ Roop told Delaware Online that Stalczynski and Sparrow were classmates.
'I believe that they had a relationship going back over a number of years," Roop said. 'I won't get into much more than that, or what the status was recently, but they were acquaintances and they did know each other.'
Sparrow was reported missing on October 2, after she failed to make it back home from getting ice cream with a friend and buying a birthday gift for her sister the same afternoon. She was a junior at Newark Charter School.
An interview with one of Sparrow’s friends led police to believe Sharp, her ex-boyfriend, was a suspect because she had gone to meet him before her disappearance.
Three days later, Delaware State Police arrested Sharp, who allegedly confessed to luring Sparrow to the woods and killing her the day she went missing.
Police said Sharp used an aluminum baseball bat to fatally strike Sparrow in the head in the wooded area behind Maclary Elementary School in Newark. Investigators later found the bat, blood droplets and Sparrow’s clothing.
Sparrow's body was found in another wooded area three days after her October 2 disappearance. Her family reported her missing when she failed to come home from going to get ice cream with a friend
Hours after Sharp's arrest, officers found Sparrow's body in a wooded area 20 minutes away from the crime scene near Interstate 95 and Route 896.
Sharp told police he planned the killing with another person, later identified as Stalczynski.
An investigation by the state police and the Justice Department was said to have revealed that Stalczynski and Sharp conspired together to lure Sparrow into a wooded area, ambush her and kill her.
Stalczynski was arrested by the state police on Monday after the indictment was returned. A magistrate set her bail at more than $1million and she was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center.
Sharp has been jailed since his arrest last month on bail topping $1million.
'Every murder is an outrage, but the murder of a child strikes at everything we hold dear,' said Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings. 'Madison was stolen from her family and friends with her life and her dreams still ahead of her. A life has been taken and a cruel trauma has been inflicted on hundreds of people who knew and loved this kind, gentle young woman.
'My heart aches for Madi’s parents, the Sparrow family, and the entire Newark Charter community. We can never replace what these people have lost, but we can – and will – hold her killers accountable.'
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