Police have arrested two men in the murder of 13-year-old Tyisha McCoy, who was found strangled to death in her Harlem apartment last week.(Harlem-WABC, July 7, 2004) -- Two men have now been charged with the murder of a 13-year old girl in Upper Manhattan.
Tyisha McCoy was found bound, gagged, and strangled in the apartment she shared with her guardian. Now police say she knew her killers.
Sources say those two men are 24 year old Kenneth Smith and 22 year old Paris France. Both men have now been charged with second-degree murder and burglary. Police say that Tyisha knew the pair and she met one of them on the Internet. one of the men apparently braided the 13-year-old little girls hair and when she didn't pay, he flew into a murderous rage.
Carolyn Thompson, Victim's Guardian: "I've been doing well, very well holding up with this. It comes, it goes."
The emotionally drained guardian of Tyisha Mccoy spoke for the first time about discovering the 13-year old bound body gagged with a rag and strangled with a telephone cord.
Thompson: "I don't know what to say because it is horrendous. That's all I can say. It's the second time. I lost a son in '91 in a drive-by shooting. So this is very hard."
In the front vestibule, there is a makeshift memorial to the promising honors student who in recent months started on a dangerous downhill slide. Tyisha's cousin says she spoke with the teenager's guardian about growing problems.
Maisha Wilson, Victim's Cousin: "She says she was having a difficult time with Tyisha. Tyisha didn't want to come in on time."
Sources say the girl started hanging out with older men. They believe that one of the men had been in the apartment previously with Tyisha. When Thompson found them, the man apparently warned Mrs. Thompson not to leave her jewelry lying about.
Thompson: "She must have known them. She let them in, so I don't know... because I didn't know them."
Sources also say that Tyisha had just graduated from the eighth grade and had only lived with Thompson for two years. Again, Kenneth Smith and Paris France are now both charged with murder and burglary.