A 15-year old boy lured an 8 y/o girl with promises of ice-cream before allegedly violently raping and killing her.

“It’s every mother’s worst fear that someone close to you could harm your child.”

Warning: This item deals with the death of a child and sexual assault and may be distressing for some readers.

When eight-year old Madyson Middleton went missing a whole town banded together to search for her.

The freckle faced kid from a housing complex located in an artists colony in Santa Cruz, California was last seen riding her scooter around the complex where she lived at about 5:05 p.m. on Sunday.

She was wearing a purple dress, a black helmet, riding her white Micro scooter.

Hundreds of volunteers arrived to search the surrounding neighbourhood handing out flyers, searching dumpsters, even searching the local levee to make sure she had not fallen in.

Even the local homeless community pitched in.

But not a trace was found.

How could an eight-year old girl go missing people began to ask? Just vanish?

The area where Maddy lived was once an old tannery. It was transformed into an artist’s colony – with residential space for lower-income artists.

They show their work and their children fill the area with laughter and games.

But as Sunday turned into Monday the laughter ceased. The artists searched instead of crafted.

As the search entered its 24th hour it had extended right across the city – but back where it started – at the complex where Maddy lived with her mother police had made a grim discovery.

The body of eight-year old Madyson hidden in a large recycling bin inside the same apartment building from which she went missing.

Standing watching police make the discovery was a young boy – a local kid just 15-years old.

The boy, Adrian Jerry “A.J.” Gonzalez was known as being “gentle”, somewhat of a counselor to the local children.

According to The Chronicle he had been interested in the disappearance of Maddy since the start repeatedly asking police if they were making any progress in the case.

“We love this guy. All of us, if you ask us what you think of him, we’d tell you he’s an outstanding kid,” neighbour Jeannie Cartabiano told The Washington Post.

  “He was our poster child.”

Another neighbour, Riley McShane agreed, telling KPIX “He hangs out on the levee with other normal kids and plays with his yo-yo all day long.”

“He’s just like a normal kid,”

That’s why it was with shock locals heard that 15-year old Gonzalez had been arrested and then charged with Madyson’s murder and rape.

At first they assumed it was an accident.

“We heard that it was possibly a horrible accident, that something went all wrong,” neighbour Jeannie Cartabiano told The Washington Post.

“Whoever it was was young enough to be frightened and tried to hide the scene.”

But police then alleged the 15-year old boy lured Maddy to the apartment he live in with his mother on the promise of ice-cream and then attacked her from behind, stabbed, raped and murdered her.

Police now say they believe that he had killed Madyson even before they began to search for her.

“It’s my belief that she was killed before we got the phone call Sunday night,” said Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel.

Prosecutors charged Gonzalez with murder and the special circumstances of lying in wait, murder in the course of forcible rape, kidnapping and lewd or lascivious acts with a child, along with separate charges of sexual penetration by a foreign object, two counts of forcible lewd act with a child and forcible rape of a child.

Overnight the 15-year old, who will be charged as an adult appeared in court briefly.

Despite being what locals called a “good kid” social media accounts of Gonzalez show a different, darker side to him.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that his Instagram account, now disabled revealed suicidal impulses.

“Among the Instagram portraits of him outside the Tannery and showing off yo-yo tricks in an apartment were other, darker pictures and commentary, “reported The Mercury News.

“Most chilling was a post from Monday, the second day of the search and the day Maddy’s body was found, that showed a short black-and-white clip of hands playing a piano to the tune of Gary Jules’ version of ‘Mad World’ — popularized on the soundtrack of 2001’s ‘Donnie Darko,’ a film signified by the title character’s death dreams,” the newspaper wrote.

Underneath the clip was a caption pulled from the song: “The Dreams in which I’m Dying are the Best I’ve ever had.”

A psychologist who reviewed Gonzalez,’s online activity told The Mercury “It definitely sounds like this guy was dealing with depression and thinking about suicide,” said San Bruno. “It seems like this guy knew something was really wrong with him.”

The residents are now banding together once more – this time not to search for the little girl but to grieve for her.

“We do so much to make sure our kids are safe. It’s mind-blowing.”

“It’s every mother’s worst fear that someone close to you could harm your child.”

Gonzalez will appear in court again in September.

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