A Washington teen has been arrested after she was caught on camera eerily staring at her ex-boyfriend’s house while holding a shotgun.
Trinity Morley, 19, was charged with attempted murder after her parents foiled her plan to kill her ex-boyfriend.
Morley’s parents, who have not been identified, discovered a disturbing entry in their teen daughter’s journal on July 27, prosecutors said.
“Now I have the gun, loaded with three rounds of buckshot. It’s a heavy shotgun. He warned that if I don’t hold it properly, I could lose an arm. I have three attempts to get this right and I’m trying to avoid using knives,” she penned, as noted in court documents shared by Fox 13.
Worried, her parents dialed 911 for a welfare check, informing the police that Morley left their home, possibly intending to graffiti her ex-boyfriend’s residence in Maple Valley.
“A visibly upset 19-year-old woman had written in a journal that she was heading to her ex-boyfriend’s place with a shotgun,” reported the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Alarming footage from a Ring camera showed Morley standing at the front door of her ex-boyfriend’s house, dressed in a black sweatshirt and mask, holding a shotgun.
Even though her ex-boyfriend wasn’t at home, his frightened family spotted her on the camera, rushed upstairs to hide, and called for assistance, as explained by prosecutors.
Morley reportedly confessed to police that she intended to kill her ex-boyfriend and then herself as she was distraught that he was never prosecuted for her rape accusations against him.
Trinity Morley, 19, was arrested after she was caught on camera eerily staring at her ex-boyfriend’s house while holding a shotgun
‘The victim in this case believed that she would have killed him, had she been given the chance,’ the sheriff’s office said.
‘The woman tried to get into his house armed with the weapon, but ultimately ran away.’
Using a drone, police found Morley on a nearby dock, still holding the shotgun and a knife.
‘Using de-escalation tactics, a deputy was able to talk to her and calmly place her in handcuffs,’ the sheriff’s office said.
Body camera footage showed the officer calmly asking if she could approach Morley and got her to drop her weapons.
Prosecutors said Morley admitted she intended to kill her ex-boyfriend and then herself in a fatal confrontation with police.
She allegedly told police that she wanted to kill him because the rape allegations she filed against him did not lead to charges and the case was closed by police as unfounded.
Investigators described her demeanor after her arrest was ‘eerie,’ noting that she smiled, rolled her eyes and even laughed.
At one point, according to prosecutors, she told a deputy who was writing down a narrative of the events: ‘It’s a good story.’
She was charged with attempted murder after her parents turned her in when they discovered a horrific journal entry detailing Morley’s plan to kill her ex
Body camera footage showed the officer calmly asking if she could approach Morley and got her to drop her weapons after she fled from her ex-boyfriend’s house
Court documents viewed by Law&Crime note that in her journal, Morley apologized to her current boyfriend for tricking him into obtaining the shotgun for her.
‘I’m sorry I lied to you’ and ‘I’m so sorry to everyone about everything,’ the documents say she wrote.
She allegedly told her boyfriend she was receiving ‘threatening texts from an unknown number,’ so he let her borrow his shotgun for self-defense.
Prosecutors said she was unable to obtain the weapon herself because her parents had filed for an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) for their daughter on July 18.
Morley’s parents told police that she had a history of mental illness, and had been hospitalized for ‘self-harm incidents, including a suicide attempt.’
Morley has been charged with first-degree attempted murder and is being held in the King County Jail on $500,000 bail.
