In a case that is as grisly as it is shocking, a 15-year-old from Lawrence, Mass., has been charged with murdering a classmate, then dismembering and beheading his body.
Station KOCO reports via the Associated Press:
Mathew Borges was held without bail after pleading not guilty at his brief arraignment in Lawrence District Court on a murder charge. Borges is being prosecuted as an adult, so court proceedings were open. His lawyer, Edward Hayden, did not argue for bail.
The body of 16-year-old Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino [who had been missing for two weeks] was found near the Merrimack River in Lawrence on Thursday by a woman walking her dog. Police recovered his head nearby. His forearms had also been cut off, but it was unclear if they were recovered.
Borges admitted to police that he and Viloria-Paulino had gone to the river on Nov. 18 to smoke pot. But, he added, the two subsequently parted ways and that when he left Viloria-Paulino, the teen was very much alive.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
That story fails to comport with a statement Borges made to a third party to whom he reportedly said he had “done something bad.” When pressed for details, Borges allegedly told the person that he had “stabbed a kid and cut his head off killing him.”
In addition, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett maintains that police recovered evidence at Borges’s home.
Borges was arrested last Saturday and is being held at a youth detention facility. He is due back in court Jan. 10.
The motive for the killing remains unclear.
