Two Teens Arrested in Murder of College Volley Ball Star Who Was Shot in Her Car After Botched Robbery
Daily Mail (London), August 23, 2012
Police have arrested two 18-year-old men in the murder of Megan Boken, a former college volleyball star who was shot to death inside her car during a botched robbery.
Detectives tracked down the teens on Thursday, thanks to a cell phone that was connected with a previous, unrelated, robbery.
Miss Boken, a 2011 St Louis University graduate, was found with gunshot wounds to the neck and chest right before she was due to play an annual alumni game at Saint Louis University in Missouri.
The names of the suspects were not available, though the St Louis Post-Dispatch reports that both are in police custody and awaiting formal charges.
Police tracked down the teens thanks to a cell phone that had been taken in a previous robbery, the newspaper reported. However, its exact role in the investigation is not clear.
Dave Marzullo, a city police spokesman, said the 23-year-old’s death on Saturday afternoon was likely an attempted robbery gone wrong because they had no evidence she knew her killer.
Witnesses said Miss Boken was seen arguing with the man who opened her car door and opened fire at very close range.
The shooter was seen firing two shots into the vehicle before leaving the scene, police said. He left before police arrived.
After she graduated, Miss Boken moved back home to the quiet Chicago suburb of Wheaton, Illinois, where she worked for a financial adviser.
She returned to St Louis, which has the second-highest murder rate in the nation, last weekend to play alongside her college teammates in a game against the current players.
KPLR-TV reported that Miss Boken was found in her Volkswagen about 2pm on Saturday in the parking lot of an apartment building where she lived when she attended St Louis University.
She was rushed to the hospital with gunshot wounds to her chest and neck, but died on arrival.
Boken was a four-year volleyball player who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing, the university said.
Witnesses described the suspect as a thin black man in his mid-20s, about 5-foot-8 tall with short hair.
Miss Boken’s family issued a statement saying: ‘Megan was a wonderful and beautiful human being loved by everyone she met. The family and the community are devastated by this senseless tragedy.’
