Two people were charged with making threats to a local man serving in the U.S. military overseas and his family.

State police charged Zachary M. Young, 20, of Pittsburgh, and Nicole E. Richards, 22, of Cranberry Township, in relation to threatening images and comments made through Instagram against a Freeport High School graduate serving in the U.S. military.

Young has been charged with two counts of misdemeanor terroristic threats and one count of harassment. Richards was charged with one count of terroristic threats.

According to charging documents, screen shots of the threats were brought to the attention of authorities by the father of the threatened man.

Police said the messages came from Richards' Instagram account, and the messages contained photographs of Young and another unidentified man.

“The text content of the messages to (the recipient) is a series of threats of physical violence, directly naming (his) younger siblings,” said the investigating trooper. “The threats include graphic descriptions of homicide and abuse of corpse as well as slang terms commonly used to refer to firearms.”

Police said they have not been able to reach the recipient because he is serving abroad.

Police said while the messages appear to be coming from Young, Richards refused to cooperate with their investigation, which forced them to serve Facebook, Instagram's parent company, with a warrant, which confirmed the account belonged to her.

In March, police received a phone call, during which both Young and Richards were speaking.

“Due to Young being within audible proximity to Richards at the time of her telephone call to PSP Butler, Young is socially acquainted to Richards that Richards could reasonably provide account access to Young,” police said.

Both are expected to appear for a preliminary hearing that has yet to be scheduled, but will be before District Judge Sue Haggerty.

Police said the photos used in the threats show guns and a criminal complaint from a previous incident in which Young is listed as the defendant.

The complaint Young was holding was one in which he was charged with misdemeanor fleeing from an officer. The charges were filed Jan. 4 by Northern Regional Police Department.

The investigating officer said he was able to confirm Young was the driver of a vehicle that fled from police in December in a high-speed chase in Marshall Township. According to court documents, that corroboration came from multiple sources.

A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for July 7 before District Judge William Wagner in Marshall Township.