The tragedy deepened the very next day when authorities arrested 19-year-old Devin Scott Raper of Conway, South Carolina. He was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. According to investigators, “Raper is alleged to have shot the victim following a verbal altercation,” an incident that turned a night among friends into a deadly encounter between two carloads of teens.
Less than a week later, on June 30, law enforcement announced the arrest of a second suspect: 17-year-old Gianna Helene Kistenmacher of Myrtle Beach. She was not only Trey’s girlfriend, but also the girl he had been introduced to by Raper just months earlier during spring break—a fateful connection that, investigators say, played a devastating role in the chain of events that ended his life.
The teenager—Gianna Helene Kistenmacher, the daughter of a Horry County police officer—was reportedly in one of two carloads of teens who traveled more than an hour inland from Myrtle Beach to the rural area of Johnsonville. It was there that Trey was left critically wounded, bleeding on the roadway.
Investigators say Kistenmacher deliberately lured Trey to the remote location, fully aware that Raper was armed and that the encounter “would likely lead to death based on statements made in her presence.” As a result, she has been charged with being an accessory before the fact to a felony.
‘Issues with each other’
Sheriff T.J. Joye described the case as a tragic fallout among teens. “This was an altercation between two people,” Joye told News 13. “It’s not like I’m just going to go to Johnsonville and shoot somebody. They had issues with each other, and it was over a female. The sad thing is you’ve got a 16-year-old who lost his life. You’ve got a 19-year-old who is going to be in jail the rest of his life. Over what?”
Girlfriend stirred the pot
Trey’s mother, Ashley Lindsey, described her son’s cheerleader girlfriend as a “queen bee” who intentionally picked a fight with him the night he was killed—pulling Raper, the alleged triggerman, into the argument to escalate the conflict.
According to the Daily Mail, the confrontation stemmed from Kistenmacher accusing Trey of cheating, even though he was reportedly with his cousins on First Neck Road at the time. The situation escalated when Raper allegedly joined the video call between the couple and pointed a gun at the phone.
Trey, who knew Raper was on his way, was reportedly expecting “a bare knuckle fight, just hands, no weapons,” Lindsey said.
“How do you go from s**t talking to killing somebody?” she told the Daily Mail. “When I was growing up, if kids had a problem, they’d meet on a dirt road, fight with their hands, and go home. You didn’t pick up a gun. None of this makes sense.”
Rejects the love triangle theory
Still struggling to make sense of the motive, Lindsey said she refuses to believe claims that a “love triangle” was the reason behind the deadly conflict.
“My son wasn’t about dumb stuff like a love triangle,” the grieving mother told the outlet. “Just two days before he was killed, he told me that being with Gianna felt like a dream come true.
“He really liked her, but he might have been clueless to whatever else was going on.”
Lindsey insists the situation is far more complicated than it appears.
“I believe [Kistenmacher] just wanted them to fight, not for it to end this way,” the mother of two told reporters. “It was all a childish act that turned real.”
Video ‘takes the guesswork out of it’
Maj. Mike Nunn of the Florence County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that photos and videos captured the night of Trey’s brutal death have become crucial evidence in the ongoing investigation.
“A lot of times the people involved record the event, so that takes a lot of the guesswork out of it,” Nunn told News 13. “Well, it’s kind of hard to deny what we see with our eyes, and what’s posted on social media—audio, video, those types of things.”
In addition to Raper and Kistenmacher, seven other young people from Myrtle Beach have been charged in connection with Wright’s murder: Hunter Matthew Kendall, 18; Sydney Marissa Kearns, 17; and Corrinne Elizabeth Belviso, 18. Authorities have not released information about four others, some of whom are juveniles, and police expect one more suspect to turn himself in, according to News 13.