Two teens face charges after authorities say they posted a photo of a drug overdose victim on social media before seeking help for the 18-year-old, who died.
John Garrett Guffey, 19, and Lillie Marie Cooper, 18, both of Grant, Alabama, were indicted this week in an incident that occurred 11 months ago, on April 23, 2017.
The 18-year-old female victim has not been publicly identified by authorities, and it wasn’t immediately clear why it took nearly a year for a Marshall County grand jury to indict the pair on charges of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of a corpse.
It also wasn’t immediately clear what drug she overdosed from.
Calls by PEOPLE to the sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office were not immediately returned.
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Both Guffey and Cooper — initially held on $10,000 bond apiece in the Marshall County jail — have since bonded out, according to jail records and the Marshall County Circuit Clerk’s office. It could not be determined if either had retained an attorney to speak on their behalf.
A statement from the sheriff’s office says the pair waited “an extended amount of time” before acting to seek help by driving the victim to a hospital rather than calling 911, reports AL.com.
In the meantime, a photo of the deceased victim showed up on social media before her body put into a vehicle, according to the followup investigation, reports TV station WAFF.
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Investigators concluded that Guffey and Cooper were present when the woman died at a residence on Old Union Road in Grant, according to TV station WHNT.
They then ran out of gas on their way to the hospital with the victim, the sheriff’s statement said.
Authorities said first responders summoned to a Mapco station near downtown Guntersville on U.S. Highway 431 found the victim unresponsive.