From Dream to Nightmare: The Tragic Story of Trey Wright

Trey Wright, a 16-year-old South Carolina teen, was living what he called “a dream come true” with his new girlfriend, cheerleader Gianna Kistenmacher. Just two days after expressing these feelings to his family, that dream shattered into an unimaginable nightmare. According to authorities, Kistenmacher, 17, allegedly set up Wright to be murdered by another teen, Devan Raper, 19. Despite their brief relationship of less than two months, Wright had been eager for his single mother, Ashley Lindsey, to get to know Kistenmacher. “Every time she came to see him, he made a point of being around me with her,” Lindsey recalled, noting how her son “truly liked her and enjoyed spending time with her.” This makes the betrayal all the more devastating—following what appears to have been an argument, Kistenmacher allegedly participated in a plot that brought Raper and seven other teens to Wright’s location in Johnsonville, where Raper allegedly shot and killed him.

The aftermath of the shooting reveals even more disturbing details about the case. Kistenmacher visited Wright at the hospital after he was shot, where his unsuspecting mother actually hugged and comforted her, unaware of her alleged involvement in her son’s shooting. “I hugged her neck and was comforting her because I didn’t know,” Lindsey explained. It wasn’t until one of Wright’s female friends confronted Kistenmacher that suspicions arose. Eventually, Kistenmacher was arrested and charged with accessory before the fact, which prosecutors later upgraded as their investigation progressed. In total, nine teenagers have been implicated in the murder—seven being charged as adults and two as juveniles. Perhaps most disturbing is that one of the teens recorded the killing on video, a fact that leaves Wright’s mother bewildered: “Why, why did they do this? What pushed them to the point to drive over an hour, nine kids, to commit murder, and then to record it?”

The investigation has continued to expand since the June murder, with authorities naming two additional suspects in recent weeks: 17-year-old Braylyn O’Neil Thompson and 18-year-old Jaden Blaze Auclaire. The other suspects facing murder charges include 18-year-olds Hunter Kendall and Corrine Belviso, along with 17-year-old Sydney Kearns. While Raper and Kendall remain held without bond on murder charges, the other suspects have been released to their parents’ supervision with ankle monitors—a situation that infuriates Lindsey. “These underage kids, they got out with ankle monitors on under their parents’ supervision, but where were their parents the night that my kid was killed?” she questioned. “They’re out at 11, 12 o’clock at night and y’all are underage. Where were the parents then?” Meanwhile, her son was where he was “supposed to be,” at a close friend’s house, when the group arrived.

Lindsey’s frustration has only grown as she’s witnessed what she believes are violations of the release terms by some of the suspects. According to Lindsey, Wright’s friends caught one juvenile reading their Snapchat story despite being prohibited from using electronic devices. Two others, who were banned from contacting co-defendants, allegedly posed together for a photo outside the juvenile justice center with the caption “I’m free,” followed by a racial slur. These instances have reinforced Lindsey’s belief that the parents are failing in their supervisory duties: “Obviously, the parents ain’t doing a good job at keeping them at home.”

The portrait Lindsey paints of her son stands in stark contrast to the violence that claimed his life. Wright was a vibrant young man who played football and baseball, and had been working at a local deer processor since he was 13. Though he had only begun playing football in eighth grade, he quickly excelled, scoring two touchdowns in his first game and was poised to advance to a higher level the following year. His mother never missed a game. While Wright “didn’t too much care for school,” Lindsey remembers how he “still went every day with a smile on his face, because he was a morning person.” She fondly recalls how he “used to wake up singing, take 30 minutes in the mirror blow-drying his hair, so his little surfer boy flip on the side of his hat was perfect.” Having earned his driver’s license early, Wright received a truck from his mother for Christmas, which enabled him to expand his social circle even further.

Wright’s magnetic personality touched many lives beyond his immediate community. “When I say my kid can go anywhere and never meet a stranger, everywhere he went he was making new friends, getting somebody’s number,” Lindsey shared. She recounted how a woman from Myrtle Beach contacted her after Wright’s death to share how her daughter had met him during spring break, and they had continued talking daily through Snapchat. “She said Trey really touched her heart,” Lindsey recalled. It was during his visits to car shows closer to Myrtle Beach that Wright met Kistenmacher, Raper, and some of the other teens implicated in his murder. As the investigation continues, with the lead detective still interviewing witnesses to uncover more details about the motive, Lindsey is left to grapple with the senseless loss of her son—a young man who approached life with enthusiasm and warmth, only to be betrayed by someone he had welcomed into his heart.