Missing Black girl found in duffel bag identified by police; death ruled homicide
The girl's body was found last Tuesday near a hiking trail. Authorities are unclear on exactly how she died
Trinity Love Jones body was found last Tuesday near a hiking trail, but authorities are unclear on exactly how she died.
Police have identified the young Black girl who was found dead last week in a duffel bag in Los Angeles as 9-year-old Trinity Love Jones, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jones’ death has been ruled a homicide and on Sunday, officials released a statement saying that two people of interest been have been arrested.
Last week, police in the L.A. suburb of Hacienda Heights released a sketch of Jones and desperately tried to identify her body that was found partially inside a suitcase on the popular hiking trail.
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Workers found the girl’s body on Tuesday in some bushes, CBS Los Angeles reported. Police believe the body was dumped there sometime on Sunday but they are not sure when she died, according to the newspaper.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Kent Wegener, said that tips were streaming in about the case.
“We have had thousands of tips come in from across the country,” Wegener said.
Jones body was recovered from an embankment just east of the 3400 block of Hacienda Boulevard, about 120 yards from the beginning of the trail, the Times reports.
Investigators said that the child’s 55-pound body had been in the embankment less than 48 hours. They are seeking DNA evidence from the duffel bag and the clothes Jones wore. Investigators said they are reviewing security tape from a Buddhist temple near the site and that they are awaiting results from the girl’s autopsy.
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“Words can’t explain what I’m feeling right now,” the girl’s father Antonio Jones told KTLA. “I just want answers. I just want justice.”
“She was just the best,” he said. “Full of character, full of life, full of joy.”
“Sad moment for the department, for the community, and we’re going to do our best to figure out what led to the suspicious death,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva told CBS Los Angeles previously.
Police said they are not sure of the girl’s exact cause of death.
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