Teen Was Doing Friend’s Hair During Sleepover When Bullets Came Flying, Fatally Striking Her in Throat

A Missouri woman was arrested weeks after a teenager was fatally shot while doing her friend’s hair during a sleepover.

Authorities responded to a shooting at a Kansas City, Mo., home on Aug. 9, where they found 16-year-old Traelynn Sibley with a gunshot wound to her throat, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

Traelynn was not named in the statement at the time, but has since been identified by the Gun Violence Archive and several news outlets including The Kansas City Star, KSHB, and FOX 4KC.

Nearly three weeks later, on Friday, Aug. 29, Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson announced charges, including murder, against 21-year-old Bailey Lewis in connection with Traelynn’s death.

According to a probable cause statement, Traelynn was at a friend’s home on the night of the shooting. She was doing her friend’s hair by the vanity near the front door when the shooting occurred.

Three adults and a toddler were also in the home at the time. They heard the gunshots and saw bullets entering the house, police said.

An investigation, including security footage from nearby cameras and Lewis’ phone, led authorities to arrest her in Independence, Mo., on Thursday, Aug. 28, according to the complaint.

One woman in the home told police she had a falling out with Lewis a few months earlier, the complaint says.

Traelynn, who was just days away from starting her junior year of high school, is being remembered by friends and family as a “beautiful, bright, sunny girl,” according to KCTV 5.

“She was a free spirit and almost always smiling and happy. She loved to dance, draw, and do nails, and wanted to be a beautician someday. We are absolutely broken by the loss of our sweet girl,” her mother told the outlet.

A note on the Gun Violence Archive page about her killing read: “[Traelynn] you were like a little spark of light!! I will never forget your little smile.”

The teenager’s mother, Cassandra O’Dell, started a Change.org petition calling for increased police presence in neighborhoods affected by gun violence, stricter enforcement of laws against illegal firearms, and stronger measures to keep guns away from children.

Lewis has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of accessory armed criminal action, and two counts of accessory unlawful use of a weapon, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said.

She is being held on a $400,000 cash bond.

Plea and attorney information for Lewis were not immediately available in online court records.