Proving that in her case beauty is only skin deep, a teen beauty queen from Utah, recently crowned Miss Riverton, was arrested when caught throwing homemade bombs in a posh neighborhood.
Kendra McKenzie Gill was arrested on Saturday with three other accomplishes for creating homemade bombs and throwing them at neighborhoods. Though nine incidents of bombing by the beauty queen and her accomplishes were reported, no one was injured.
The girl was set to compete in Miss Utah pageant this year after winning the Riverside crown where she wowed the judges by playing a Scott Joplin number on piano and receiving a $2000 scholarship. She promoted workout groups and encouraged a healthy body image from her platform “Fit to Be You.”
After winning her beauty pageant, she was quoted by South Valley Journal saying “You don’t have to look just a certain way … It’s about being healthy and happy.”
According to law enforcement authorities, the bombs were made of plastic bottles, household chemicals and aluminum foils. Gill and her friends threw at least nine bombs from their car in the Riverside neighborhood. Gill was charged with 10 counts of detonating an incendiary device.
While one of the accomplishes told the police that they were pranking with fireworks, Clint Mecham, a captain with the local United Fire Authority, told the KSL-TV the devices “contained chemicals that could cause burns … They can severe limbs. They can even kill people.”
Mecham commented, “This goes well beyond a teenage prank.”
Gill and her accomplishes John Patrick Reagh, Shanna Marie Smith and Bryce Christopher Stone, were held on $50,000 bond and released on Sunday night. All of the accused are 18 years of age.
Justi Lundeberg, a spokeswoman for the Miss Utah pageant admitted to the media that the Miss America Organization hasn’t had to deal with such an incident before.