A 19-year-old Missouri man was charged Wednesday night in connection to the death of 17-year-old girl, according to reports.
On Sunday, a relative got a FaceTime call from the young woman in which she was later described as “sitting on a couch with her hands in the air, in what was described as a surrender position.”
“What?” the relative heard a male voice say per the documents. “You scared of me?”
There was a struggle. Then the call dropped, investigators allege in the documents.
The relative rushed to the location pinged on the girl’s phone and called the Grandview Police Department, who later found the teenager in a residential lot with what was described by Detective Jonathan Cook as “having trauma to her body to include what appeared to be stab wounds, a gunshot wound, bruises, cuts, abrasions and broken teeth.” (A preliminary autopsy report was not available at the time of the filing.)
The boyfriend, Tyheem V. Anderson, was arrested Tuesday and charged the following night with three criminal felony counts in connection to the young woman’s death: assault in the first degree, armed criminal action and kidnapping, according to the redacted charging documents.
In a press release announcing the charges against Anderson, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said the case remains an active investigation “and other charges are being explored.”
The victim was identified as 17-year-old Amauri Hughes.
While going through Anderson’s residence, investigators allegedly “observed what appeared to be blood in several locations of the residence, a knife on the couch and a spent shell casing in the bedroom,” the detective wrote in a probable cause statement form reviewed by Illicit Deeds.
Using the chemical luminol, which creates a blue glow over cleaned up blood stains, “a large presence of blood was indicated throughout the residence to include areas on the wall, kitchen floor, a laundry room and hallway,” the detective alleged.
Investigators also found a spent .45 caliber shell casing in the home — and “a human tooth” in the laundry room, according to his probable cause statement.
In March 2022, a Jackson County judge ordered a temporary order of protection (later upgraded to a full order of protection) for a woman and child connected to Anderson, according to domestic violence documents obtained by The Kansas City Star.
The judge considered Anderson to be a significant risk to their safety and barred him from having any contact with both. The order was set to expire this past July, and the outlet reported that it appeared to have lapsed.
Nearly 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner every minute – or more than 10 million women and men each year – in the United States, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The coalition further estimates that in the U.S. nearly half of all Black women, like Hughes, have been subjected to “intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes.” And more than half of all Black women who are murdered in the country are killed at the hands of their intimate partner, according to the coalition.
It was not immediately apparent if Anderson had obtained a lawyer or if he had pleaded to the charges.
In an interview with police, described in part in the charging documents, police allege he told them that he had been in a relationship with the teenager for three years and that on Sunday they got in an argument “regarding things Anderson saw on the victim’s phone.”
Anderson allegedly told police that he had confronted her about what he saw on her phone, then threw it to the ground, shattering it. Then he ordered her an Uber home.
Anderson said he had not seen her since and that he only learned she had died when one of her family members called to tell him.
In the report, the detective added of the interview: “Anderson stated the argument with the victim did not become physically violent at any point. Anderson denied killing the victim.”
Anderson is due in court for a bond review hearing November 27.
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