The statistics for teenage runaways is pretty grim, with (depending which set of statistics you read) either 1 in 5 or 1 in 7 will run away with 75% of those being female. Average age--16. Most have the help of an older teen or an adult.
Again, I didn't keep up with the story and haven't read the timeline, but from posts elsewhere, it appears the adult man did the murders. I had assumed the girl was in school at the time.
However, parricide (murder of parents by their offspring) is not all that uncommon and it's one of the only lethal felonies that is growing, instead of dropping. Matricide is not unheard of either--the killing of a mother by one or more of their offspring.
In November 2011, the Department of Justice released its annual homicide statistics, which revealed that while homicide across the country has fallen in almost every other category since 1980, the number of parents killed by their children is growing as a percentage of family homicides. In 2008, FBI data show that at least 117 mothers were killed by their children, and according to statistician Erica Smith at the Bureau of Justice Statistics, that number could be as high as 260, which would make it the highest number of matricides since 1991.
girls who kill their mothers
And, it's not just murder or running away. I picked one state to check out--Colorado.
For every 100,000 residents, there are 18.4 people serving life sentences without parole for felony convictions committed while they were teenagers age 14-17. Colo isn't the worst example either--there are 12 other states where the statistics for those convictions show a higher ratio. And that's only ones age 14-17. (14 is the min age most states allow "children" to be tried as adults and not juveniles) That 18.4:100,000 isn't the ratio for teen felonies--that's the ratio for felonies severe enough to get a life without parole sentence. The teen felony ratio is much much higher, and teen crime overall is the fastest growing demographic in the country.
So, as in all things, I tend to keep an open mind on things--a free thinker. Did this teen do anything wrong? Probably not, but I know that anyone, at any time, at almost any age and for any reason, (or no reason) , is "capable" of doing virtually anything---to anyone.