14 year old girl murdered in San Diego neighborhood
The body of Anna Hernandez, 14, was found wrapped in a blanket by police, her body decomposing, behind the apartment complex off 29th and Market, on November 18th. It is a familiar scene in Tijuana, a body with visible trauma, wrapped grotesquely lovingly in a blanket.....This time played out with even more indescribable brutality, as the body concealed within the blanket is only a child. And now another is missing, as posters are passed out in Tijuana, and authorities and families remain silent for now...
Anna Hernandez attended San Diego High School, a few blocks from downtown San Diego, and lived in the Grant Hill Neighborhood, adjacent to Memorial Park. She went missing on November 13th, with her friend Nelly Espinosa, who lived a few blocks from where Ana's body was discovered. Nelly was two years younger then Ana. Police have not named any suspects, or confirmed that Nelly was kidnapped, or that the two incidents are related. Authorities confirm Anna Hernandez was beaten and shot, possibly more then once before she died. A High Tech High student, where Anna attended school before a recent transfer stated that Anna had recently fallen in with a bad crowd, but that she was a sweet girl. It's a vague statement, that may not mean anything. Even in a gang neighborhood, it's hard to imagine, that a mere bad crowd could end in a badly beaten decomposing body, of a child.
In Tijuana, the body wrapped in a blanket is known as encoibjado, and the ways bodies are left to be discovered can have some significance at times, though the constant bloodshed and frenzied killings have lost some of their meaning in the constant flow of blood and tears. In non drug related crimes, it usually indicates the perpetrator had some kind of concern for the victim, and knew them or even loved them. This is seen in child killings and sexual abuse cases frequently, and can often indicate a loved one, or someone close is responsible. It is a crime, and act of intimacy.
It isn't too much to assume that the killing likely wasn't done in the lot behind the apartment complex, and Ana's body was merely left there, to be discovered, though she was possibly killed very shortly after she went missing on the 13th. To beat a 14 year old, and then shoot her would require a private or more private area, very likely extremely close to where they were possibly abducted from. Another apartment, abandoned building, possibly a site where homeless or teenagers drink or smoke. This may indicate that the UNSUB (Unidentified Subject) is familiar with the area, and perhaps the victims themselves. Theories are likely to sweep the neighborhood and the school she attended, with not a lot to go on, I would venture this is a person close to the girls, someone who lived in the neighborhood, and may have had another motive besides sexual assault or murdering Anna, a grudge against another family member, or a custody issue. Domestic, or close would be my first thought abuse or otherwise, and not retaliation for unpaid drug debts, and to be clear there is NO evidence of criminal elements in the families, as of now.
It's a gruesome and wrenching parallel of the two sister cities, San Diego and Tijuana, a heart breaking and brutal story, that renders me cold and hopeless, devastated....
Sources: NBCSan Diego, 10news San Diego