Three juveniles face charges after investigators said Gabbriana Boyster was shot Friday evening and discovered by her mother the following afternoon.

HILLSBORO, Mo. — A Friday night at home with friends ended with 16-year-old Gabbriana Boyster fatally shot and left inside the house for hours, according to authorities, before her mother returned the next afternoon and found her daughter. Three juveniles who investigators believe were present now face charges in connection with the death.

The gap between the shooting and the discovery of Boyster’s body has become one of the central facts in the Jefferson County investigation. Sheriff David Marshak said investigators believe the shooting happened on the evening of July 10. Deputies were called the following afternoon, July 11, to the 7900 block of Tower Road north of Hillsboro. Boyster was found with an apparent gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have said her body had remained inside the home for hours before anyone called for emergency help.

Boyster’s mother, Candy G’Sell, told KSDK in an interview later cited by Law&Crime that she had spoken with her daughter Friday night while she was away from the house. G’Sell said Boyster told her she planned to remain at home, and the mother recalled telling her daughter to lock the door. When G’Sell returned Saturday afternoon, she found Boyster in a bedroom and called 911. Authorities have not publicly released a complete minute-by-minute account of what happened between the shooting Friday evening and G’Sell’s return the next day.

Detectives identified three juveniles whom the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said were believed to have been inside the home when Boyster was shot. The Jefferson County Juvenile Office later filed allegations against all three. One juvenile was charged with involuntary manslaughter, unlawful use of a weapon resulting in death, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse. The other two were each charged with abandonment of a corpse. The juvenile facing the manslaughter and weapons allegations remained detained when officials announced the charges, while the other two were released.

The identities of the three juveniles have not been made public. Local reporting described them as boys, and G’Sell said they were friends of her daughter. Because the case is being handled in the juvenile system, authorities have disclosed limited information about the youths, including their ages and the detailed allegations underlying each charge. The charges are accusations and do not establish that any of the juveniles has been adjudicated responsible for an offense. No later public announcement located as of Aug. 22 detailed a final disposition of the juvenile proceedings.

Authorities also have not publicly explained the circumstances immediately surrounding the gunfire. They have not said who owned the firearm, how it came into the home or provided a detailed account of how it was handled before the shooting. The decision to pursue an involuntary manslaughter allegation against one juvenile distinguishes the case from an intentional murder allegation, but investigators have not released enough information to reconstruct precisely what they believe happened. Officials also have not publicly described what the three juveniles did during the hours after Boyster was shot beyond the abandonment allegations filed against them.

The fact that Boyster was not discovered until Saturday became especially painful for her family. G’Sell described finding her daughter after returning to the residence and told KSDK that there was no sense of relief after the juveniles were taken into custody because her daughter was still gone. Her comments focused less on the criminal case than on the permanence of the loss and the prospect no parent expects to face: burying a child. Authorities have not suggested that G’Sell was at the residence when the shooting happened.

Boyster was preparing to enter her junior year in the Hillsboro R-3 School District. Superintendent Jon Isaacson said the district’s thoughts were with the student’s family, friends and others affected by her death. The district made grief counseling available to students and families as the community dealt with the loss during summer break. The school response underscored how the shooting extended beyond the criminal investigation into a student community that had expected Boyster to return for another school year.

An obituary published by Chapel Hill Mortuary & Memorial Gardens identified her as Gabbriana Isabella Boyster. It said she was born Jan. 28, 2010, in St. Louis and was 16 when she died. The notice listed her mother, father, siblings, grandmother and extended family among her survivors. Those details supplied a fuller picture of a teenager whose name first entered public reports through a sheriff’s investigation and a list of juvenile charges.

The shooting also occurred during a period when Jefferson County authorities were investigating several violent deaths. By late July, local reporting counted five homicides in the county for the year. Marshak said at the time that random shootings were unusual locally and that recent cases generally involved people who knew one another. He cited domestic, family, acquaintance and dispute-related connections as typical patterns. In Boyster’s case, investigators similarly said the juveniles at the home knew her, and her mother described them as friends.

That relationship is an important part of the story but does not answer how the gunfire occurred. Publicly available reports do not establish whether the firearm was brought to the home that evening, was already there or belonged to any of the juveniles. Nor have authorities released evidence showing what was said or done immediately before the shooting. The limited information matters because descriptions such as “friend” establish a social connection, not a motive or a complete explanation for what took place inside the house.

The abandonment allegations, meanwhile, focus attention on what authorities say happened after Boyster was shot. Marshak said the teenager’s body remained in the residence for hours. The sheriff’s office subsequently identified three juveniles it believed had been there, and each was accused through the juvenile process of abandonment of a corpse. Officials have not publicly described whether any of them attempted to summon help, contacted another person, moved evidence or gave investigators an explanation for leaving. Those questions remain outside the confirmed public account.

The case progressed quickly in its first several days. Deputies responded Saturday afternoon. Investigators identified the three juveniles and transferred them to the Jefferson County Juvenile Office. By July 14, Chief Juvenile Officer Melissa Perris had announced the allegations being pursued. One juvenile remained at the Juvenile Detention Center while the other two were released after being charged with abandonment. News reports in the weeks that followed continued to list the case among Jefferson County’s 2026 homicides but did not disclose a later adjudication or new account of the shooting.

For Boyster’s family, the legal process followed a much shorter and more devastating sequence: a final conversation Friday night, a return home Saturday and the discovery that the 16-year-old would not begin the junior year that had been ahead of her. The official investigation has established the approximate timing of the shooting, the presence of three juveniles and the charges filed afterward, but many details about the firearm and the events inside the residence have not been publicly released.

The most recently available public reports continued to describe one juvenile as facing involuntary manslaughter, unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action and abandonment allegations, with two others accused of abandonment of a corpse. Authorities have not publicly identified the juveniles or announced a final resolution of the case.

Author note: Last updated August 22, 2026.