Murdered Staffordshire teen Harleigh Hepworth travelled to Wolverhampton 'as a promise to a friend'

The 17-year-old died from a single stab wound to the heart on March 7 after travelling more than 20 miles from his home in Brereton in Rugeley.

However, West Midlands Police detectives found that the enterprise turned out to be fake and was in actual fact a ruse hatched by his killers, a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons and 18-year-old Jovarn Esterine, who went on to rob them of their mobile phones. 

West Midlands Police's Detective Inspector Ade George, who led the murder inquiry, said: "Prior to the meeting Harleigh had unfortunately started trying to make money through selling drugs. 

"He was offered work to sell drugs by the two offenders, but through text messages we could see that Harleigh was nervous about it all and on a promise to a friend, he decided to go along that night."

"As they stood there waiting, chatting and listening to music, the two offenders asked to borrow Harleigh and his friend's phones. 

"It was during that time that the offenders logged into their Snapchat accounts on the victims' phones and started messaging each other. During those messages, they made reference to a 'lick', which is street slang for committing a robbery.

"We believe that the offer of making money wasn't actually there. We believe that this was all part of a planned robbery. They would get people from out of town to come and meet them and then rob them because they didn't know what they were getting into."

Detectives working on the case were partly able to come to that conclusion because the pair took the visitors to a very secluded area of the park, telling the unsuspecting friends that they would be waiting for a lift there.