Teen accused of ex-girlfriend’s murder on graduation trip allegedly sat in room with corpse for hours
An Ohio teenager accused of killing his ex-girlfriend while on a graduation trip to South Carolina allegedly sat in a room with the corpse for hours before stabbing himself in the chest.
Law enforcement is alleging that Blake Linkous, 18, strangled his ex-girlfriend Natalie Martin, also aged 18, as they visited Myrtle Beach after graduating from Philo High School in Duncan Falls, Ohio.
They were staying at a rental home with a number of friends.
Brooklyn Ferrell, a friend of the couple, told Fox News that “At about 9am, Blake came out, he had stabbed himself in the chest and everyone got up and was freaking out and asking ‘Where’s Natalie? Where’s Natalie?’”
Ms Ferrell spoke at Ms Martin’s funeral earlier in June and told the network that she was one of her oldest friends. She added that two members of the friend group attempted CPR but that it was “way too late ... she was cold and stiff”.
The couple had ended their relationship in February, Ms Ferrell said, claiming that Mr Linkous had grown violent before the relationship was over.
“He took her and threw her across the room,” the friend claimed about the high school wrestler and football player.
Ms Ferrell said the ex-couple had been arguing the day before the alleged murder because Ms Martin had been texting someone else.
The friend said that on the night of Ms Martin’s death, the group was going out clubbing, but Ms Martin had said she wasn’t feeling well and went back to the rental home along with Mr Linkous.
When the group came back that night, Ms Ferrell said they had to enter the home via the back door as no one was answering at the front of the house.
The door to Ms Martin’s and Mr Linkous’s room was locked, the friend recalled.
Everyone in the home was asleep by 7am that morning, Ms Ferrell said. Two hours later, a bleeding Mr Linkous emerged from his room, repeatedly shouting “Natalie’s not waking up”.
Mr Linkous is in jail without bail as he awaits a murder trial, according to People magazine, citing county jail records.
Ms Martin “had a life-long love for softball and soccer,” her obituary said.
She worked “the Sundale Kids as a childcare provider. She formed many special bonds with all the precious little ones she cared for,” it added.
“She loved to hunt, shoot guns, fish, wrangle snakes, plant and nurture flowers, and could gut and skin a deer better than most grown men,” the obituary said before going on to note Ms Martin is survived by her parents, her two brothers, and other relatives.
