Orange County, INDIANA — (News Release) — On Thursday, January 25, 2018, around 5:00 p.m., law enforcement was made aware of a post on a social media account that threatened to do harm to local schools. The Indiana State Police, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and Paoli Police Department immediately began to investigate the origin and validity of the of the threat.
Later in the evening of January 25th a second post appearing to be from the same site was posted. The Paoli School Corporation was informed of the findings and later decided, for the safety of all involved, to cancel school this past Friday, January 26, 2018.
From the time these threats were reported to law enforcement, investigators have been working diligently to determine who was responsible for these criminal acts. The result of thorough investigative efforts, detectives developed probable cause to arrest three juveniles, ages 16, 17 and 17 for their alleged roles in posting the threats. All three juveniles were taken into custody earlier this afternoon in Paoli, and were transported to a juvenile detention center. Each juvenile is being charged with Intimidation, a Level 6 Felony.
While the state police will not comment on specifics of how this crime was solved and what social media apps were used to communicate these threats, the clear message is these crimes are vigorously investigated and are not treated as pranks. Engaging in communication of ‘anonymous’ threats can have lifelong consequences for people arrested and prosecuted for such crimes. And as demonstrated by this investigation, nothing on the Internet is ever truly ‘anonymous.’
