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The 17-year-old suspected in the killing of two North Carolina teens released rap tracks online that detailed the slayings, a report said.
Issiah Mehki Ross of Mebane was identified by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Monday as the suspect being the Sept. 17 shooting of Lyric Woods, 14, and Devin Clark, 17.
During his time as a fugitive, Ross reportedly posted several new songs to his SoundCloud page under the name @Mi$tr3, including one containing the lyrics “headshot” and describing “riding round with a new Glock,” the News & Observer reported.
In another song posted just days after the killings, Ross raps that he “got inside my car like I’m sipping on blood. So much red inside my car like in the Akorn I trust. Got some s-t I can’t talk about, I cannot discuss.”
Police finally revealed Ross’s identity nearly two months after Woods and Clark’s gun-riddled bodies were found on a gravel road.
Ross was a student at Eastern Alamance High School, where Clark was also enrolled, a spokesperson told the News & Observer. He had recently moved to Mebane and had only been enrolled in the school from Aug. 29 to Sept. 3 of this year.
Officers had held off on revealing Ross’s identity, despite suspecting him of the crime just 48 hours after Woods and Clark’s bodies were found, because of the state’s strict juvenile protection laws, a rule that caused serious frustration for area residents. Defendants under the age of 18 are automatically tried as juveniles in North Carolina unless their case is transferred to Superior Court.
A judge authorized Ross’s case to be transferred to adult court Monday morning, allowing the police to finally reveal his name to the public.
According to officials, Ross allegedly shot Woods and Clark beneath a power-line easement sometime early Sept. 17 morning. ATV riders found the teens’ bodies the next afternoon, and Ross had already fled the state, Sheriff Charles Blackwood said.
“We had a reasonably good idea where he was going or where he had gone to and notified law enforcement authorities in Delaware,” Blackwood said.
Ross was apprehended on Oct. 5, 18 days after his alleged victims’ bodies were found.
Police would not comment on the music.
Two others have been charged in Delaware for harboring a fugitive.
Despite being tried as an adult for the murders, Ross is still being held in a youth facility, officials said.
Officers would not comment on Ross’s links to Woods or Clark, or divulge a possible motive for the shootings, but said there are “some theories” tied to forensic evidence found at the scene.
Blackwood said he is “very confident” the evidence will prove Ross committed the cold-blooded murders.
