Facebook friends charged in teen’s death

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) ó Four teenagers are facing murder charges in North Carolina as investigators wait for a medical examiner’s report to determine if the victim is a missing boy who lists the suspects as Facebook friends.

Wake County sheriff’s deputies said they have no motive and are waiting to see whether the body they found in a mobile home is that of 18-year-old Matthew Josiah Silliman. He has been missing from his suburban Apex home for nearly a week.

The suspects are 16-year-old Drew Shaw, 18-year-old Ryan Hare and 17-year-old Aadil Khan of Apex; and 17-year-old Allegra Dahlquist of Cary. All are scheduled to make their first court appearance Thursday.

Silliman’s page on Facebook, an online social networking site, lists the suspects as his friends.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens said evidence found inside the mobile home indicates a homicide.