Listen to this articleA 17-year-old Henderson, Nev. boy confessed to police that he and his 18-year-old brother strangled a gay music teacher after he allegedly “got sexual” with him, according to Las Vegas County police.
Basic High School teacher Matthew Cox was found dead inside his home on Dec. 22 by a friend Cox had asked to check on his pets while he was to be away visiting family in Michigan for Christmas. His dead body was found on a couch with a blanket over his head
Juan Aguirre told police that he and his brother, Jose Delatorre, strangled his music teacher because he made him uncomfortable with sexual advances the night he died.
On December 20, Cox, 32, picked up his student Aguirre and brother at Basic High School and took them back to his house. There they played video games.
Juan Aguirre told investigators that Cox “started to get sexual with him” while the pair were alone upstairs. He said the advances made him uncomfortable.
27-year-old Jamie Quashnock, a friend of Cox, told investigators that Aguirre recently told Cox he was gay. And Cox confessed to his friend that if he weren’t his teacher, he would have pursued a relationship with the boy.
The brothers killed the music teacher in his car when he drove them home, strangling him for about ten minutes. Afterwards, they drove back to Cox’s home and left his body on the couch. The pair also stole valuable electronics from Cox’s home, including a Wii video game system, an iPod music player and a laptop computer.
Aguirre told police that he kissed the teacher on the cheek before leaving, saying he did not mean to hurt him, just rob him
“Never in a million year would my son have done anything with this kid,” Debra Armstrong, Cox’s mother, told ABC 13 News. “He just wanted to help, help straighten kids out. God will come through for Matthew.”
The mother of the two suspects is accused of helping the pair hide the car where Cox was strangled.
Cox’s mother, Debra Armstrong, said in an interview with ABC 13 that the suspects made up the story that Cox made sexual advances to “justify” the murder.
“Every child that has ever worked with him knows he would never do anything to them, never. That is disgusting,” said Armstrong.
