Kailey Vijil was only 12 years old when she was allegedly lured from her home by a 15-year-old boy in the middle of the night.
The boy allegedly came to Kailey’s family home in Utah just after midnight on Friday morning and persuaded her to come outside with him.
When Kailey asked her relatives if she could play with the teenager, one of them reportedly said yes.
But after about 90 minutes, Kailey’s mum could not find her little girl. She started to desperately search the neighbourhood for her daughter, and eventually alerted police officers at a nearby convenience store to her daughter’s disappearance.
Police followed the signal on the young girl’s mobile phone — and at 3am on Friday, authorities found Kailey’s battered body alone in the middle of an overgrown horse pasture, just four blocks from the girls’ home in Salt Lake City.
Kailey’s body was found with “evidence of trauma”, though police have attested that there was no markings of being shot or stabbed. There were also signs of a struggle at the scene, police said.
“I believe a good-natured child was fooled and unfortunately made a mistake she paid the ultimate price for,” West Valley Police Chief Lee Russo told The Deseret News. “This young girl thought she was helping somebody.”
It appeared that there was no prior relationship between Vijil and the 15-year-old boy, Russo added.
PM: Israel Launches Missiles At Iran, Male Violence A Priority Says Attorney-General
The Quicky
Taylor Swift & The Birthday Card Relationship Test
Mamamia Out Loud17-Year-Old Fletcher Crowley Became Paraplegic Six Months Ago
No Filter
Top Comments
There are so many ways this could have been prevented. Why on earth was she out of bed at that hour of the night? Why on earth would it not have raised any alarm that a teenager was door knocking AFTER MIDNIGHT?!? How would you only twig there was a problem at 1:30AM?!
Words fail me totally on this one. Yes, her parents may be grieving. But that grief must be ten times worse to know their own negligence caused it.
Let's get something straight. We have to accept that we live in a world where good and bad exist, we have to teach our kids right from wrong but we also have a duty to protect them. Letting a child out of the house at midnight beggars belief. That poor little girl should not have been killed, her killer should have known right from wrong, but the fact that she was let out of the house at midnight is also an issue here!
Why is it always the victim's parents who are questioned and blamed? Gosh, people are so judgmental and awful to others, especially based on such little information.
In many neighborhoods around the world, it is not unusual for kids to play outside together late at night during the summer. Rarely does it result in murder! This is international news for precisely that reason.
It could've have happened at any time, the boy was apparently determined and had asked other girl neighbours to go with him earlier. Would you attack her parents if it had happened at 12pm? 5pm? Any time?
You don't know the circumstances, so how about responding with empathy for the poor girl's traumatised family, friends, the boy's family, and close-knit community? It beggars belief that empathy for others goes out the window and is replaced with cruel judgement...
I absolutely have empathy ellaa, having empathy and looking at a situation for what it is are completely different! It was midnight, she was 12, she did not know him. If it is normal for this to happen in their community why did her mother start searching for her an hour later? If it was midday and she had been missing an hour nobody would react. As a world community we need to start discussing prevention, like i said good and bad exist in our world, we need to protect the vulnerable the best we can!