SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – By now, investigators in Utah county knew Tyerell Przybycien had a hand in the suicide of Jchandra Brown.

Przybycien is now serving 5-years-to-life in prison for child homicide. He assisted in Brown’s hanging death and even recorded it.

In rarely seen police interviews they learned the shocking story of why he watched and recorded her death.

“l knew she wanted to die and so she just got on the noose and took the air duster and I started recording and I said ‘please, please say something.'”

But on the cellphone investigators found at the scene, Brown never said anything.

The 16-year-old did leave a suicide note. She wrote: “I hated my life. Goodbye (expletive) world. Watch the video. It’s on my phone.”

In May 2017, a turkey hunter found Brown hanging from a tree near Maple Lake in Utah County.
He called 911.

“She’s hanging in a tree. The rope’s still … and her limbs are purple. Necrosis has kicked in.”

Utah County sheriff detectives arrived shortly after the call was made and discovered evidence left by Brown.

“In the bag at her feet were several items, there was a uniform, from Wendy’s fast food restaurant,” said Sgt. Quin Fackrell. “In the other bag, there was items like a cellphone, there was a note, and a receipt.

The receipt had Tyerell Przybycien’s name on it. Later they found surveillance video from a store in Spanish Fork showing the two of them walking in.

The store’s cameras caught Pryzbycien at the counter purchasing the nylon rope found on the tree

The two also went to Walmart to purchase other items used to carry out their mission of death.

Pryzbycien actually returned to the hanging site while authorities were still investigating.

“We thought we had a crime at that point, that we had a murder and so it was determined to arrest Mr. Przybycien for the murder of Jchandra,” said Fackrell.

“They questioned him for more than six hours over two days.

Pryzbycien told them Brown had been thinking of suicide. But he also became interested in helping her.

Investigators later learned of several texts he sent to friends.

One read: “it would be cool to see someone die.” And he got that chance.

“On the way up she just kept saying, she kept telling me ‘I’ve lost feeling for everything tyerell. I feel nothing.'” Przybycien told investigators. “And I said ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ And she said ‘yeah.'”

He said he took her phone and a flashlight to record Brown’s last minutes on earth. Przybycien said she got on a rock, took a whiff of aerosol that he bought earlier.

“(Then) put the noose around the neck and she hit it (aerosol) and like laughed and fell over off the rock,” he said.

After checking her pulse, he left, only to return a short while later and ran into the police.

“I was helping her that’s all,” he said. “And I was helping her and I just feel guilty about it now.”

Pryzbycien pleaded guilty to child homicide and sexual exploitation of a minor. He also had child pornography on his phone.

After his sentencing, Brown’s mother blamed Pryzbycien for convincing her daughter to take her own life.

“(I) can’t blame this on immaturity,” said Sue Bryan. “And those are his own words. He murdered and killed her. He gave her mind-altering drugs.”

For Sgt. Fackrell, the case still haunts him today.

“It’s had a great effect on me personally,” said Fackrell. “I lost a lot of sleep over it. A lot of sleepless nights.

During the police questioning of Przybycien he was asked the following:

Detective: “I got one question for you. Did you find any satisfaction in watching her die?”
Przybycien: “I got frightened, right there at the end.
Detective: “You got what?”
Przybycien: “Frightened.”

But apparently he overcame that fear.

While waiting for trial his fascination with death continued. Authorities said he wrote letters to a young woman who did something similar to her friend. Przybycien wanted to be her pen pal.

He’s now serving five-years-and-up-to-life in prison and will become eligible for parole in 2032.