The Arizona high school football player accused of beating a teen to death at a Halloween party last year was allegedly hidden away by his family after the attack and bragged the boy’s funeral was a closed casket service.
Talan Renner, 17, along with the other six accused attackers were held on $1 million bond and have pleaded not guilty in connection to the killing of 16-year-old Preston Lord.
The Queen Creek Police unearthed new details about how Renner was moved by his father, Travis Renner, to the family’s $850,000 cabin in Show Low — three hours away from his home — days after Lord’s death, according to documents reviewed by AZFamily.
The claims were allegedly made to police by his father’s ex-girlfriend — who shared she had broken up with Travis Renner before the horrifying murder but was still close with the family and still had access to the father’s credit card history, according to the 1,100-page report.
She claimed to have messaged Renner — described as a “fighter” and an “angry kid” — on Snapchat while he allegedly hid at the cabin about three hours away from his home, where he shared a photo of him “walking the family dog, Gucci.”
She claims that in the photo, the accused killer teen’s jaw was swollen.
His father’s ex then revealed to law enforcement that the Renner family attorney had allegedly advised them to let his “hands heal” before coming back to his hometown of Gilbert.
She allegedly told police that Renner “holds in a lot of aggression,” and “when he snaps, he snaps.”
She shared she decided to make the report after seeing the lack of remorse her ex’s son had following the release of video surveillance allegedly showing Renner bragging about getting away with Lord’s murder and how the 16-year-old was given a “closed casket” funeral because of how badly he was beaten, according to the outlet.
Ashley Reynolds, a former employee of Travis Renner at Relentless Media Agency, told the Arizona Republic last month that Renner’s father and CEO, Adam Kifer, allegedly discussed moving his son to the cabin and shifting the blame on another boy involved in the deadly assault.
The former executive assistant at Relentless claimed the two men asked her to help with the “crisis” and regularly provided updates to her about the case.
Reynolds, who is a mother herself, said she never got the “opportunity” to decide for herself to get involved, and after two months of not being unwilling to help them with their scheme, she was fired, according to the outlet.
“I can’t imagine being a mom and losing a son and having people out there knowing what happened and not coming forward,” she told the outlet.
Renner and six other alleged bullies who referred to themselves as the “Gilbert Goons” have all been arrested over their alleged involvement in Lord’s death on Oct. 28 during a Halloween party in Queen Creek — about 40 minutes east of Phoenix.
As many as 15 suspects wearing ski masks attacked Lord, one witness said. The teen died from his extensive injuries at a hospital on Oct. 30.
The teen allegedly boasted to a friend online that he mistakenly “killed” Lord during a fight — which was sparked after another suspect, Dominic Turner, 20, also known as “D Money,” allegedly stole a chain from a friend of Lord’s.
In the police documents obtained by AZFamily, a witness told police they received a Snapchat message from Renner after the attack, where he allegedly admitted to killing Lord.
“I got in a fight, a big group fight and I accidentally killed a kid,” Renner allegedly wrote in a Snapchat message, police said. “I guess I’m just too strong.”
Another suspect in the fatal beating, Talyn Vigil, 17, later confessed on Snapchat to attacking Lord, authorities said.
“I hit a kid and this kid hit his head,” Vigil wrote to a friend, according to a police report. “And then they kicked his head in the ground and then I got word he died so idk.”
A friend close to Renner told police that he “hammer pounded Preston in the face four times and everyone surrounded him and started kicking him” during the attack.
“Preston is lying face down, someone climbed over and ‘danced on top of him,’” the witness told police.
A separate witness also was able to shed more light on what happened during the attack, telling police that when Lord was “on the ground, the group of kids began recording and ‘humping’ the individual” while he laid their dying “before they all ran away.”
