Using the homosexual hookup app Grindr, the star-crossed lovers arranged for a lakeside rendezvous in the middle of the night at a canoe launch in rural northwestern Pennsylvania between Pittsburgh and Lake Erie.
According to a criminal complaint filed on July 3, the family of 14-year-old Paul “Pauly” Likens had left town on June 22 for reasons which remain unclear. Young Pauly intended to stay at an undisclosed friend’s house while his family was gone. The friend, described as a juvenile, says they last saw Pauly in person at about 9:30 PM on June 22 after Pauly said he was going to walk back home. When the friend noticed Pauly posted on social media that he was taking a late-night stroll at around 2:30 AM, they messaged Pauly to see that he was okay. Pauly said he was, but all subsequent messages to him were ignored.
Since Pauly was a biological male, I’ve insisted on referring to him with his proper pronouns. But even four years ago, when he was 10, Pauly was posting gender-ambiguous photos of himself on Facebook. A more recent picture — the one appearing in all of the news stories — shows Pauly presenting as a female, although one who looks as if they’ve seen some extremely hard times for a 14-year-old.
On July 2, after spending days scouring the woods and dragging Shenango Lake in Clark Borough, Pennsylvania, police arrested a burly-but-freckled 29-year-old black male named DaShawn Watkins and charged him with murder in the first degree, aggravated assault, tampering with or fabricating evidence, and abuse of a corpse. (In case you were unaware, “DaShawn” is a name derived from a Swahili term which roughly translates as “The Shawn.”)
A 29-year-old man in Pennsylvania has been arrested for allegedly killing and dismembering a 14-year-old who had been missing since late June. . . .
A forensic pathologist with the coroner’s office performed an autopsy and determined that Pauly’s manner of death was a homicide and her [sic] cause of death was sharp force trauma to the head. Additionally, evidence indicated that Pauly was dismembered with a “cutting instrument.” . . .
Surveillance footage from [an] apartment complex reportedly showed Watkins leaving his apartment multiple times carrying “multiple bags and garbage bags.” At least once he can reportedly be seen struggling to carry a large duffle [sic] bag.
Additionally, Watkins said that he had used the dating app Grindr to meet up with someone and they engaged in some form of sexual contact.
Authorities on July 2 executed a search warrant on Watkins’ home where they reportedly found blood present in multiple locations, including the area beneath the bathroom floor lining. A receipt showed that Watkins on June 23 purchased an electric saw with exchangeable blades that was recovered from the home with [the] blade missing.
Jen McClure is Pauly Likens’ biological mother, but for reasons which I’m sure are quite colorful, she doesn’t share his surname. A friend of McClure set up a GoFundMe page which as of this writing has raised nearly $22,000 of a $15,000 goal [text reprinted without alteration]:
I’m creating this go fund me on behalf of paulys mom Jen. She found out this morning that her daughter was murdered. Pauly was only 14 years old and had a whole life ahead of her. No mother should have to bury their baby and due to her unexpected death the family was not financially prepared for funeral expenses if we could come together as a community and help them out in this impossibly hard time to give them one less thing to worry about that would be amazing! Let’s help this mom lay her baby to rest.
Pauly’s aunt — who, like his mom, was nowhere around Pauly when he got murdered — told a local TV station that Pauly was “just amazing”:
Only an absolute monster could do something like that to anyone, let alone a child. I hope he gets what he deserves.
Your post-mortem rage and sanctimony are convenient, but what was your amazing “child” doing meeting strange men on a homosexual dating app?
Maybe Grindr should change its name to Dismembr. Or Choppr.
