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A West Wendover, Nev., teen has been charged with murder in the slaying of her high school classmate.
Toni Collette Fratto, 19, was charged Monday in the Elko Justice and Municipal Court.
The charges come after attorneys for co-defendant Kody Cree Patten, 18, turned over to prosecutors tapes of Fratto reportedly admitting to a role in the killing.
According to the charges, Fratto said she drove with Patten and 16-year-old Micaela Costanzo to a spot about five miles west of Wendover on March 3.
In the Nevada desert, Fratto heard a "thud or a thump" and got out of the vehicle to see Costanzo lying on the ground, unconscious but alive, court documents state.
Then, for a reason prosecutors said Fratto did not articulate, Fratto and Patten began inflicting the injuries that caused the girl's death, the charges state.
Patten and Fratto kicked Costanzo, beat her with a shovel, slashed her throat and buried her in a shallow grave, officials said.
Fratto also admitted gathering Costanzo's possessions — a T-shirt, some spiral notebooks, keys, a charm, and a black-and-white polka-dot bag — and then burning them, along with the knife, at a gravel pit across town, according to court documents.
Costanzo's body was discovered March 5. Patten was arrested and charged with murder days later.
Patten's attorneys recorded the interview with Fratto and then turned the tapes over to prosecutors during a hearing last week.
Fratto faces felony counts of open murder and acting as a principal to open murder; and misdemeanor counts of willfully destroying evidence of the commission of a felony.