Year-Long Online Contact Turned Deadly (Image Credits: Nypost.com)
Fishers, Indiana — Federal prosecutors charged a 39-year-old Ohio man in connection with the death of 17-year-old Hailey Buzbee after he directed authorities to her dismembered remains in a remote forest.[1][2]
Year-Long Online Contact Turned Deadly
Tyler Thomas met Hailey Buzbee more than a year before her disappearance through online gaming platforms such as Discord, where they played titles like Roblox and League of Legends. Court records showed the pair shifted to the encrypted messaging app Session, which Thomas used to orchestrate her plan to leave home. He admitted to detectives that he arranged her transport from Indiana to Ohio.[3]
Investigators recovered deleted Snapchat messages and sexually explicit images from Thomas’s phone, some taken at his Columbus residence and a rented property. Thomas claimed he believed Buzbee was 18, but records confirmed her age. The communication escalated into plans for her to run away, setting the stage for the tragic events.[2]
Cross-State Trip and Sudden Silence
On January 6, Thomas drove his black Acura SUV about 160 miles from Columbus to pick up Buzbee near her Fishers home around 3:30 a.m. Neighborhood cameras captured the vehicle, and her device disconnected from home Wi-Fi at that time. Cellphone data placed them at an Airbnb in Logan, Ohio, the same day, followed by a stop near the North Country Trail Trailhead in Wayne National Forest.[2]…