Teen Who Filmed Friend's Suicide Charged With Murder

A Utah teenager who filmed his friend’s suicide was charged with murder Wednesday at a preliminary hearing. Tyerell Przybycien, 18, was charged with the first-degree felony in the death of 16-year-old Jchandra Brown as well as a misdemeanor for failing to report a dead body.

As part of the evidence presented in court Wednesday, prosecutors played the cell phone video Przybycien recorded of Brown’s death in May. In the 10 minute video, the teens can be heard discussing Brown’s imminent suicide before she placed a rope around her neck and inhaled from an aerosol can, according to KUTV. After Brown appeared to be dead, Przybycien could be heard saying, “I guess I’ll just leave this here now.”

Brown’s body was discovered by a turkey hunter the next morning. Shortly after, Przybycien walked up to Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Josh Chappell to make a tearful statement. Przybycien told Chappell he had driven Brown, his friend, to the place where she killed herself. The sergeant initially thought he was an upset witness to a friend’s suicide.

“Once the phone powered on, I knew this was not your everyday situation,” detective Quiton Fackrell said of the video.

Investigators said Przybycien eventually told them he had a “fascination with death,” according to Utah County Sheriff spokesperson Sgt. Spencer Cannon. Police also said he told them he wanted to see someone die and told Brown he would kill himself after she did, despite having no intention to do so. Investigators also found receipts that showed he had purchased items that helped Brown commit suicide.

“I feel guilty,” Przybycien told police in a recorded interview, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. “I feel like I did murder her. I helped her so much.”

Prosecutors argued that Przybycien’s actions “facilitated” Brown’s death and that helping her plan it was criminal. Przybycien’s lawyers, however, took issue with the murder charge and said they would attempt to get it thrown out of reduced.

“We’re arguing that this tragic story, this young lady’s passing away, was a suicide and that my client’s actions did not rise to the level of murder,” defense attorney Neil Skousen said Wednesday.

Przybycien was also charged with possessing child pornography: police found photographs of what appeared to be girls under the age of five on his phone while searching for evidence.

“He was a predator,” said her mother, Sue Bryan, remembering how the two became friends after Brown moved from Idaho to Utah.

“Her problem was, she thought she found a friend,” the girl’s aunt, Polly Meija, told the Salt Lake Tribune. “She found a monster.”