*WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS DETAILS THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER DISTURBING*
BARTOW, Fla. (WFLA) – Police say two Polk County middle school students are facing charges following the discovery of a disturbing plot to kill several students, cut them up and eat them.
The investigation began on Tuesday at Bartow Middle School when Bartow police were contacted by a school resource officer who had detained two girls that came to school with knives.
An affidavit from the police department says the students, a 12-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl, came up with the plan after spending the past weekend together watching scary movies.
During an interview with detectives, the girls said they planned to go to their first-period class and then meet in the bathroom. The affidavit says they planned to then wait for smaller students to come into the bathroom so they could attack them.
“They wanted to kill at least 15 people, and were waiting in the bathroom for the opportunity to find smaller kids that they could overpower to be their victims,” Bartow Police Chief Joe Hall said during a news conference on Wednesday.
The girls told officers they planned to kill the students by stabbing them and cutting their throats, and were then going to pile the bodies up in a stall. The affidavit says both girls researched online how to kill someone with a knife and where to stab someone so they would bleed out the fastest.
“They told us they were Satan worshipers. They did make comments that they were willing to drink blood, and possibly eat flesh,” Chief Joe Hall said.
Bartow police say it was part of a plan for the girls to “be with Satan.” The arrest affidavit says the girls were going to stab themselves so they would bleed out after they were done killing.
“Killing all of these students was in hopes that it would make them worse sinners ensuring that after they committed suicide (they) would get to go to hell so they could be with Satan,” the affidavit says.
Police say the girls brought weapons to school on Tuesday and hid them under their clothes.
School officials say a student reported hearing about a school threat, so they had extra officers on campus Tuesday.
Their plot was confirmed when the school called one of the parents and told them her daughter wasn’t in her second-period class. The mother said there had to be a misunderstanding because her daughter was at school. Assistant principals started looking for the girl and found her in a bathroom stall with the other girl. Police said it was the same bathroom they had planned to carry out the attack.
Police say, combined, the girls were armed with four knives, a knife sharpener and a pizza cutter.
Detectives say the 11-year-old also brought a goblet in hopes of drinking the blood of their victims.
During a search of the suspects’ phones, detectives found Snapchat messages about the plot. One said, “We shouldn’t have met each other lol. Now death is near.” The last message said, “Today is health lessens [sic] thank Satan we’re doing this in a bit.”
Detectives also searched both of the girls’ homes. Nothing was found in the home of the 11-year-old but police say they found a map of the school and hallways in the home of the 12-year-old. The outline showed where they were going to commit their killings, the affidavit says.
Polk Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd is crediting the school staff for getting involved.
“I want to thank the teachers, the administrators for when they saw something, they heard something, they said something,” she said. “We don’t send our children to school to be harmed. If you plan on harming any of our children we will take it very credible and turn it over to law enforcement. We will protect them.”
Both girls are expelled from school and they are facing multiple charges, both felony and misdemeanor.
