NY Teen Confesses to Stabbing, Setting Gay Man on Fire

A teenager from upstate New York was arrested Monday after confessing to killing a man who was more than three times his age after possibly meeting him on Craigslist, the Watertown Daily Times reports.

Kyle A. Box, 18, a high school student at Carthage Central School, located in Carthage, N.Y., was arrested Monday and was charged with second-degree murder after confessing to local police Sunday that he stabbed Randy J. Bent, 62, a number of times then lighting his body on fire, WYNF reports.

Bent's body was found Sunday night with multiple stab wounds after firefighters arrived at his burning home. The fire was quickly put out and fire officials said the fire started in the living room at the front of the home.

Though authorities have yet to release information about the case, it is reported that Box, a junior, told police he stabbed Bent several times before lighting him on fire, which he did in order to hide the crime. An autopsy on Bent has been performed but not released to the public.

Police have not commented on how Box and Bent, who was openly gay, knew each other. But Bent's friends, Dorothy "Dottie" M. Miller and John G. Miller, told the newspaper that Bent frequented Craigslist to meet men. They said they urged him to stop using the site for hookups because they were concerned for his safety.

The Watertown Daily Times reports it discovered a Craigslist listing in the casual encounters with the headline "18-year-old in need of help - m4m (carthage.)"

"Hello my name is Kyle and I've had trouble looking for a job so if anyone out their needs someone to give them a good time and call or text me i'll gladly give you something you wont forget. :)," the ad allegedly reads.

Bent's friends describe him as kind and gentle and that he went to the gym almost daily, where he lost 80 pounds. His friends also said that while they were close, there were parts of his life they did not know about.