Disturbing Details Emerge In Murder Of 12-Year-Old West Valley City Girl
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – July 21, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) –
Disturbing details are emerging in last week’s disappearance and murder of a 12-year-old West Valley City girl.
According to a probable cause statement filed in Salt Lake City’s Third District Juvenile Court, Kailey Vijil was murdered in the early morning hours of Friday, July 17 after being lured from her home by a 15-year-old neighbor boy.
The boy, whose identity has yet to be released, was taken into custody shortly after the girl’s murder and now faces charges of criminal homicide and aggravated murder. The court will soon rule on the District Attorney’s request the juvenile be tried as an adult. If so, the teen could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Witness statements included in court documents reveal the suspect knocked on the Vijil family’s door near 3500 S. 5200 West around midnight and asked Kailey’s 14-year-old sister to help find his lost cat. The 14-year-old told him “no” so he asked 12-year-old Kailey for help. Police say she agreed and left with the suspect.
After an unspecified period of time, the 14-year-old told her mother what happened. When Kailey failed to return, her mother contacted police.
The court documents reveal West Valley City detectives found Kailey’s body in a field not far from her home at 2:55 a.m. She was “lying on the ground unresponsive, and not breathing” and “a shirt was wrapped around her neck.”
The results of an autopsy released by the State Medical Examiner’s Office Tuesday shows the official cause of death as ligature strangulation.
Police arrested the 15-year-old suspect within hours of the murder. Detectives say once he was in custody he admitted to being with Kailey in the field during her disappearance and where her body was ultimately found.
The probable cause statement also shows that earlier in the evening the 15-year-old suspect approached another neighbor, asking Melanie Thygerson if her young granddaughter could help find his cat.
She declined.
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