Child abuser filmed my girl’s death
As soon as my girl met this man, her days were numbered Sue Bryan, 53
At her lowest ebb, she’d been confiding in him
Dressed in a pink outfit, my daughter Jchandra, 8, zoomed from one side of the room to another.
‘When I grow up, I’m going to be a racing-car driver!’ she announced.
‘You’re going to tire yourself out,’ I laughed as she dashed around making car noises.
But that was Jchandra, my little ‘tom-princess’.
Obsessed with cars and sports, but too much of a girlie girl to be a tomboy.
Parading around in pretty dresses, playing with Barbies.
It was March 2009 and my two sons – Dustin, then 24, and Jerrett, 20 – had moved out.
A single mum, it was just me and Jchandra.
We were incredibly close. And when I met Duke, 62, when Jchandra was 13, we became a team.
‘If only I could bottle that energy,’ I sighed to Duke as she raced in from the garden.
‘Can we make pancakes, Mum?’ she grinned.
Her lust for life rubbed off on everyone she met.
In September 2016, we moved from Idaho to Spanish Fork, here in the States, to be closer to Dustin, who was married with kids.
We all loved spending time with him
and the grandchildren.
Only, Jchandra, 15, didn’t seem happy in her new school.
She became distant, and hid away in her room.
‘The kids at school say I’m ugly,’ she confided one night. It broke my heart.
‘But you’re beautiful,’ I tried to reassure her.
She got an evening job in a local restaurant, made new friends. She seemed to perk up. But by April 2017, her sparkle had faded again.
Jchandra was back to being distant, withdrawn.
‘You can get your driving licence soon,’ I said, hoping it would cheer her up.
She’d talked about learning to drive since she was little. Only...
‘What’s the point?’ she sulked, skulking off to her room. ‘Please, talk to me,’ I begged. ‘I’m fine,’ she sighed. Convinced she was depressed, I took her to the doctor.
He booked her a counselling session for a few weeks’ time.
On 5 May 2017, I drove my girl to her evening shift.
‘I love you,’
I said, pulling up outside.
‘I love you, too,’ she said quietly.
That night, I went to bed, only to wake very suddenly at 1am.
Jchandra wasn’t even due home for another half-hour.
But I just had a feeling something wasn’t right. I tried her mobile... Voicemail. So I drove to the restaurant. Her boss walked over to me, looking confused.
‘Jchandra said she wasn’t feeling well, so she left early,’ he explained.
Panicking, I called the police to report her missing. Back home, I barely slept. Early the next morning, Duke went to his job as a warehouse operative. ‘She’ll be fine,’ he promised. Not knowing what to do, at 8am I went to my retail job. But a few hours later, two police officers turned up. My stomach dropped. ‘We’ve found Jchandra’s body in a canyon,’ an officer said. ‘What?’ I screamed, dropping to my knees. ‘It can’t be her.’ Then I called Duke, who came to drive me home. Later, we turned on the TV and there, on the screen, was a picture of my girl.
A reporter said that her body had been discovered at a nearby campsite.
They said it was suicide. ‘No, no, no,’ I wept.
She was just 16.
For the rest of the day, I sat in a daze as family arrived. ‘We’re so sorry,’ weeping relatives said.
Duke held my hand and Dustin sat beside me.
But nothing felt real. How can my beautiful girl be gone?
The next morning, Dustin called. ‘There was something else about Jchandra on the news last night,’ he choked down the line. ‘What?’ I stammered. ‘A man has been arrested for her murder,’ he said miserably. Murder?
‘But they said it was suicide,’ I gasped.
So I called the police. An officer explained they’d found something on Jchandra’s mobile phone. It was a recording of her last moments.
They’d arrested someone
named Tyerell Przybycien, 19.
‘I’ve never even heard of him,’ I said, totally perplexed. Then…
‘We believe that he helped her to carry out the suicide,’ the officer said.
I was chilled to the bone. ‘Why would anyone do that?’ I sobbed hysterically.
It was all too much to take as I grieved for my girl.
But as the months went on, more horrifying details were reported in the papers.
I discovered Jchandra had met Przybycien about a month before her death.
She’d been at her lowest ebb, and she’d confided in him. Thought he was a friend. But instead of helping her, he groomed her into taking her own life.
In a text to a friend, he’d written, It’ll be awesome. Seriously, I’m going to help her. It’s like getting away with murder. Pure evil.
On the night of her death, Przybycien picked up Jchandra from work and drove her to a shop, where he bought a rope.
Next, he drove her to some woods in Payson Canyon, where he set up the scene for my girl to end her life.
He recorded Jchandra’s last moments on her phone before throwing it on the ground and walking away without a care in the world.
That morning, Jchandra’s body was discovered by a member of the public.
Police found a note and her mobile on the ground.
My name’s Jchandra Brown and I hated my life, she’d written in the note. Watch the video. It’s on my phone.
Detectives discovered the 10-minute footage of her death.
And as police continued searching the area, Przybycien approached them.
He admitted being there when she’d passed away.
Told authorities that he’d wanted to watch someone as they died.
With every new bit of information, my agony grew.
How could anyone do something like that to another human being? Let alone my kind, sweet girl. In October last year, Tyerell Przybycien, 19, struck a plea deal with the authorities.
In order to avoid a murder charge, he pleaded guilty to child abuse homicide at Utah District Court.
I had to leave the court when they played the video of Jchandra’s death.
But I later learned how Przybycien could be heard on the video saying, ‘Thumbs up if you’re OK.’
Prosecutors told how he bragged to friends he planned to get a noose tattoo.
He was also convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor for having images of child sexual abuse on his phone. Sick.
Przybycien was jailed for five years to life.
I was disgusted.
He could be out by 2022. I miss Jchandra every day. Her contagious laugh, her beautiful smile.
I wish she’d talked to me about how she was feeling.
But, instead, she was manipulated by a predator.
Even the prosecutor said she wouldn’t have died if she hadn’t met Przybycien.
Jchandra thought she’d found someone who really cared about her.
But he just wanted to see her die for his own sick kicks.
I’ll never forgive him for stealing her life away.
I can’t put it better than Przybycien did himself.
What he did... It’s like getting away with murder.
He bragged that he was planning to get a noose tattoo