A 14-year-old boy who was “complicit” in the murder of 14-year-old Jose Nunez last week in Bridgeport has been arrested and charged, police announced Monday night.
Detectives said the boy, who was not identified publicly because of his age, admitted he played a role in Nunez’s death early last week, Capt. Brian Fitzgerald said. He turned himself in to police Monday and was charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Nunez was found dead in the woods in Oxford a day after he vanished from his parents’ home on July 28 and Bridgeport police charged 19-year-old Diante Willoughby, with whom Nunez communicated on Snapchat, with the boy’s murder on Thursday.
Police did not elaborate on how the second boy charged Monday was involved in Nunez’s death, but they did indicate they do not expect to make any other arrests. The 14-year-old boy was ordered held at a juvenile detention center in Bridgeport pending a yet-unscheduled court appearance, Fitzgerald said.
Nunez initially went missing the morning of July 28 and later that day police received information that Willoughby had talked about killing a young person named Jose and leaving his body in a remote place, police have said. Police found Nunez’s body on July 29 and were watching Willoughby, so when he was seen near that Oxford location on July 30, Bridgeport detectives and federal agents took him into custody.
Police and Nunez’s family have said Willoughby and Nunez began communicating over Snapchat, a social messaging platform that quickly deletes photos and texts after they are viewed, and that Willoughby used it to lure Nunez away from home and kill him.
Willoughby admitted to that in an interview with detectives and told police he drove the boy to Oxford where he strangled him and even checked his pulse was gone to confirm his death, according to court records.
Willoughby told investigators, however, that he had received sexually explicit images of himself from Nunez, who had tried to blackmail him several times and even rob him with a BB gun, records show. Police have not been able to independently confirm that claim, they said.
Willoughby was charged with murder, murder with special circumstances and risk of injury to a child. He is still being held in lieu of $2 million bail.
Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.
