The answers to those and other related questions have only begun to unfold as four teenagers, described by peers as Silliman’s friends, stand charged with his murder. The slaying has both puzzled and shaken at least three western Wake towns — Silliman’s hometown of Apex; Cary, where his family attended church; and the New Hill community, where the teen’s body was discovered Dec. 3 in a mobile home used for storage.

Charged in Silliman’s death are Drew Logan Shaw, 16; Ryan Patrick Hare, 18; Allegra Rose Dahlquist, 17; and Aadil Shahid Khan, 17. Shaw and Hare attended Panther Creek High School in Cary. Dahlquist and Khan were students at Apex High.

All four remained silent Dec. 4 as they appeared before a Wake County judge during their first court hearing since their arrests. The teens are currently being held in jail without bond.

The suspects in Silliman’s murder were also linked virtually. All were listed as Silliman’s friends on the popular social networking site Facebook. So just who are these teenagers, and what, if anything, might have led them to allegedly commit such a heinous act? For insight, we turned to the Web.

Following are snapshots of recent activity from the suspects’ respective Facebook pages as well as other online sources.

Silliman had been missing since Nov. 26, the same day authorities issued a Silver Alert for the Apex High senior. The Silver Alert program was designed to disseminate information about missing persons who suffer from dementia or other cognitive impairments. After spending time in Cherry Hill Hospital for depression, Silliman, also described as a confident leader in his Boy Scout troop, emerged in October and told a friend doctors had diagnosed him as being possibly bipolar.

Still, friends said last week they could not imagine Silliman could have been killed and his four friends blamed for it.

“Never in a million years can any of us imagine them doing anything like this to him,” said Taylor Cross, a friend from Apex High School. “They were friends.”

News & Observer reporters Mandy Locke and Thomasi McDonald contributed to this report.