Accused Poss killer’s Facebook page mentions ‘cold sad corpse’

The 14 words atop Brandon Warren’s Facebook page may prove meaningless. They may be nothing but a young man’s morbid riff on life, a passing thought or, maybe, a line plucked from the ether of popular culture.

But in the wake of what their apparent author is accused of doing — some combination of choking, strangling or stabbing another teenager to death — the words connote a foreboding ring.

“Who could love you,” the Facebook intro beneath a picture of two people in Halloween masks on Warren’s page begins, “but the mold that sprouts from your cold sad corpse.”

It isn’t clear when the phrase was posted, and — though it well could be — it doesn’t appear to be a direct quote from any songs, books or video games.

Warren, who is 18, and his 17-year-old friend Dakota White were charged with murder on Thursday in the death of 18-year-old of Sam Poss. Poss disappeared last weekend. Few answers have emerged publicly about why Poss may have been killed or what led to his death.

After an all-out search early this week failed to turn up so much as a trace of him, his body was found late Wednesday in some woods above Lake Joy, about five miles north of the neighborhood on Perry’s southeast side where Poss and White lived.

A Facebook post that Perry police told The Telegraph they have linked to White from September of last year reads: “I wouldn’t mind taking a knife, shoving it into someones throat and just watch them choke on their own blood until they die.”

Perry police Capt. Heath Dykes, referring to postings on both teens’ Facebook pages, said, “Honestly, they are disturbing.”

The page linked to White lists nine “friends,” one of whom is Warren and another who is a man who lives on Branch View Trail, not far from where Poss’ body was found. According to police, autopsy results showed that he died from suffocation and strangulation, and a contributing factor was stab wounds to the upper chest.

On Monday afternoon, while the hunt for Poss was underway, the same Facebook page, which uses the handle “TG Rilla,” shared a Telegraph article about the search for Poss.

In the hours afterward, the page shared at least two similar stories from local television news outlets, each bearing color photographs of Poss in his graduation cap and gown.

The last publicly viewable post on the page — a song by rapper Krizz Kaliko called “Kill S--t” — was shared at 2:44 a.m. Wednesday. Twenty-two hours later, White was booked into the Houston County jail.

In one of Warren’s Facebook photographs, the dark-haired, slender and sad-eyed teen can been seen wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Police have not said what his connection to Poss might have been, but friends of Warren’s say he and Poss and White had at some point all attended Perry High School together.

Due in part to its heinous nature and the alleged involvement of young people, Poss’ killing brings to mind the April 2013 slaying of Middle Georgia State College student J’maal Keyes.

Keyes was 19. His killer, a fellow student who was then 17 and thought to have been under the influence of LSD and other drugs, later confessed and told authorities he woke up one morning and decided to kill someone.

Authorities in the Poss case have not mentioned a motive in his death or said whether one is known.

NOT ‘A VIOLENT PERSON’

Two of Warren’s friends have told The Telegraph that though he was considered a senior at Perry High, Warren was most recently attending Edge Academy, a school-credit recovery program on Elberta Road in Warner Robins.

Emory Cook, a Perry senior, said that in the past she was “really close friends” with Warren.

The talk at Perry High in recent days, Cook said, has revolved mostly around the mystery surrounding the death of Poss, who had recently graduated from the school.

The questions most students have, Cook said, involve what prompted someone to kill Poss.

White, one of the suspects, has reportedly told authorities that Poss had come over to his grandparents’ house on Tucker Road to repair a computer one night last weekend, then walked home barefoot and vanished.

Cook, Warren’s friend from high school, on Thursday wondered, “Was it premeditated? (If they did kill Poss), why’d they choose Sam? What happened in the events leading up to Sam dying? Was the computer thing even an actual event? … Was the computer even broken?”

Cook, 17, said Warren’s alleged accomplice, White, no longer attended school and had “a history of being in trouble” there.

As for Warren, Cook said, “He wasn’t a violent person. So it really shocks anyone who knew him. … He was anti-violence. He was never mean to people. He hated when other people were rude.”

Another pal of Warren’s, a Warner Robins High School student who has come to know him at Edge Academy this fall, said Friday that Warren was shy at first.

But as they became friends, Karina Gonzalez said Warren confided in her that he had been abused.

“He always seemed like he just wasn’t happy. ... He’s got a lot of problems,” Gonzalez, 18, told The Telegraph.

She said Warren was not presently living with his parents, that he lived with an aunt instead. Warren’s Facebook page lists his hometown as Kathleen, which lies east of Perry toward Ga. 247.

She said Warren had talked of wanting to become a nurse.

“He used to tell me he was trying to be better, trying to change,” Gonzalez said. “He told me he had a rough childhood.”

Phone calls to his family’s house in Perry seeking comment have gone unanswered in recent days.

The last time Gonzalez heard from Warren was a little more than a week ago, on a Thursday night.

Her cellphone rang and it was him.

But her phone’s screen was broken and she couldn’t answer.

Days later when she learned of Warren’s arrest, Gonzalez said, “I was in shock, because I couldn’t believe that someone I spent eight hours a day with had done something like that.”

Gonzalez kept thinking how Warren — and perhaps White — appeared unhappy with his life.

“One was living with his aunt. One was living with his grandparents. … Brandon, he would break down. He would tell me things,” Gonzalez said, wondering aloud.

“It just made me realize. ‘Your life would have to be so bad for you to not care, to kill somebody, for all this to happen to you.’”

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Accused Poss killer’s Facebook page mentions ‘cold sad corpse’."