Five children aged 11 to 14 have disappeared from their homes on Grand Bahama since May, prompting fears that a serial killer was stalking the island.
The charges relate to the first of the boys, 12-year-old Jake Grant.
One of the accused, all aged 11 to 13, is Jake’s best friend. “We are treating each of the five missing boys’ cases as a distinct and separate matter,” said Ellison Greenslade, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas police, who are receiving assistance from Scotland Yard and the FBI.
The suspects pleaded not guilty at a hearing in Freeport and have been taken to a juvenile detention centre in Nassau, the capital, where they are expected to remain until a trial in February.
The parents of one of the charged boys say police told them they believed Jake had drowned accidentally while swimming with friends in the pool at their apartment block, and the other boys panicked and buried his body. Police searched a field behind the apartments last week but found no human remains. However, unconfirmed reports said clothing was uncovered.
The mother of another of the accused said police had tried to coerce her son into confessing, and that the other three did not have lawyers.
Richard Luscombe, The UK Guardian
