Pair accused of posting pics of OD'd friend to social media before taking her to the hospital now charged with homicide
03/23/2018 2:50 pm PDT
By Irene Martinez, WHNT
MARSHALL COUNTY, Ala. -- (WHNT) -- A Marshall County grand jury has formally indicted two people under the age of 20 with the 2017 overdose death of an 18-year-old woman. Law enforcement say the two people charged took a picture of the victim and posted it online before even attempting to take her to the hospital.
The Marshall County Sheriff's Office says 19-year-old John Garret Guffey and 18-year-old Lillie Marie Cooper, both from Grant, have been indicted for criminally negligent homicide and abuse of a corpse.
On April 23, 2017, authorities say Guntersville Police along with Guntersville Fire and Rescue were called to the Mapco Station on United States Highway 431N to an unresponsive female in a vehicle.
Authorities say they learned that the 18-year-old died as a result of an overdose at a home on Old Union Road in Grant. Police say Cooper and Guffey were there when the woman overdosed, but they decided to drive her to the hospital themselves instead of calling an ambulance. Then they ran out of gas near the Mapco Station as they neared downtown Guntersville, law enforcement said.
During the investigation, authorities discovered that a picture of the deceased had been taken and put on social media before she was moved from the home to the vehicle.