I just thought I would share my husband's theory. This is PURE speculation and I don't know whether I agree or disagree:
He (DE, perp) is in college and is finding out that making friends isn't as easy as he thought it would be. In high school he was the golden boy, but now he's at a school with 22,000 other golden boys and girls. So he gets online while bored and/or drunk and talks to girls. It starts out as a joke or a way to pass the time. Then he gets really wrapped up in it and befriends several girls he thinks are his age. Nicole is someone he befriends, however, he suspects she is not as old as she says. He has no proof she is that young, but he knows.
They chat, they decide to meet, she wants to pretend she is grown so she agrees to meet him somewhere. She sneaks out. The moment he sees her he KNOWS she is not 18 (as he suspected all along), but he goes along with it because he is lonely and maybe even feels bad for her.
Somehow they end up getting drunk and due to her medical conditions she isn't doing so well. Maybe she even forgot to take her nighttime meds. She starts getting violently ill and he doesn't know what to do so he calls a female friend (NK). NK feels for the girl but also wants to stop her friend getting in trouble. She's a little tipsy too so while she is angry when she discovers this girl is clearly a baby, she can be convinced to help him. They get her into a car, drive around for awhile trying do figure out what to do.
The victim dies. Either from her liver, from being too intoxicated, choking, etc. NK and DE panic. DE thinks they should hide the body. NK wants to go to the hospital. DE refuses and gets angry/violent/belligerent. NK realizes she can't get out of this now and if she doesn't help DE he might pin this on her or even hurt her. "What happens to my scholarships and future when it becomes clear that I didn't help a girl who was in need? What if they think I murdered the girl? What if they find out I was drinking?"
So NK drives as far south as she can stay awake for, helps DE dump the poor girl's body, covers her in snow and drives home.
She looks like crap in her mug shot because she has been awake for several days and was interrogated by police all night. As soon as the cops realize she was involved, she tells everything because she feels so much guilt. But she WAS wrong, and so was he.
And the reason DE's first degree murder charge sticks? The girl died under his "care" after he had technically kidnapped her. Had she been at home she wouldn't be dead. So that's how he still gets a murder charge. And that's why there is no sexual assault charge.
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AGAIN THIS IS NOT MY OPINION. It is my husband's incredibly detailed prediction. It is HIS opinion not mine.
