Five college students from Massachusetts were charged Thursday with conspiring to use a dating app to entice a guy to their campus and then capture him as part of a TikTok fad known as “Catch a Predator.”
All of the kids who attended Assumption University were charged with conspiracy and kidnapping. They all entered not-guilty pleas and are scheduled to return to Worcester District Court for a pre-trial hearing on March 28.
In court, the defendants—Kelly Brainard, 18, Easton Randall, 19, Kevin Carroll, 18, Isabella Trudeau, 18, and Joaquin Smith, 18—were emotionless and spoke to the judge only through their lawyers. Juvenile court was arraigning a sixth defendant separately.
According to the police, the man was lured to the exclusive Roman Catholic school in Worcester using Brainard’s Tinder account. She is also accused of intimidating witnesses. The gang also includes a male student who is charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
According to a campus police report, the target, a 22-year-old active-duty military service member, told police he was in town for his grandmother’s death in October and “just wanted to be around people that were happy.” He then resorted to Tinder, where he received an invitation from a woman who claimed to be 18 years old.
