By Tim Binnall
Cops investigating the case of three masked miscreants who menaced a Virginia family earlier this month have reportedly determined that the perpetrators were the victims' relatives playing a misguided prank. The now-solved mystery made national headlines in mid-October when Shayla Whiteside shared nightmarish doorbell camera footage of the incident (seen below) in which the frightening-looking troublemakers demanded to be let into her mother's Alexandria home. The incredibly creepy scene was featured on news broadcasts across the country and prompted a stern police response in which it was promised that the miscreants would be unmasked and brought to justice.
Providing an update on the matter at a Monday morning press conference, Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire announced that the case had been solved, but that no one would face any charges in connection with the incident. He explained that, in the course of the investigation, "it was discovered that the three masked individuals were related to the victim." McGuire indicated that "an adult female suspect later confessed" to aiding the trio of teenagers in their antics. McGuire also revealed that, at the time of the incident, there were two other adults and a child hiding nearby and filming "what we now know was a prank" that went wildly awry.
Noting that the victims in the home "had no knowledge" of the proverbial conspiracy of ill-advised tomfoolery on the part of their relatives, McGuire said that they had opted not to press charges over the incident. That decision led Alexandria Police to follow suit, content in considering that case a "learning experience for this family." To that end, McGuire mused that the moment represented "a moral failure" on the part of the perpetrators as the misguided prank could have had "deadly consequences." While Whiteside's relatives may have gone unpunished for the prank, one imagines that the family's unwanted fifteen minutes of fame could make for a rather tense Thanksgiving dinner next month.