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TAYLORSVILLE — Officials believe details from Snapchat accounts may help them with their investigation into the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl at a party in August.
A warrant unsealed last week shows officials requested "basic subscriber information," including email addresses, phone number, timestamps and logs with message sender and receipt date and time, from a sixth Snapchat username they believe is one partygoer's second Snapchat account.
They have previously been granted warrants for five other usernames they believe were used at the party before the shooting, according to the warrant.
"The information held within Snapchat could assist investigators in this shooting and death investigation," the warrant states.
Kaylissa O’Leary, a senior at Copper Hills High School, died Aug. 24 after a party at a house at 3142 W. Havea Circle (5475 South) in Taylorsville, according to police.
Detectives initially said the shooting wound was self-inflicted, but later classified it as “suspicious” in part because several partygoers fled the scene, according to police. O’Leary’s blue Honda Civic also was reported missing after the incident. It was located several days later.
On the night of the party, a Unified police detective arrived at the scene and could see from the front door that there was a female on the floor with a gunshot wound in the middle of her forehead, according to the warrant, which was filed Sept. 18 in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake County.
The female was later identified as O’Leary, according to the warrant. There also was a .380-caliber shell casing found several feet away from her body, the warrant states.
There were at least 11 people in the house at the time, according to the warrant. Detectives interviewed three males, the warrant states.
One of the males told investigators he had heard O'Leary was "playing with a gun and it went off," the warrant states. He also said after the shooting, seven of the people at the party — four male and three female — left the house, taking the gun with them, according to the warrant.
Another one of the males told the detective that before the shooting he saw two of the partygoers posing with guns, at the house where the party occurred, in Snapchat posts, the warrant states.
He also showed the investigating officer a Snapchat story from another partygoer's account that showed the partygoer pointing a gun at a phone while in a car.
Search warrants were filed for six different Snapchat accounts, including O’Leary’s account, as detectives investigate the case. The most recent warrant was issued to a obtain information from a corrected username spelling from a partygoer's second Snapchat account.
As of Tuesday, there were no new developments in the case, Unified Police Sgt. Melody Gray said.
