Post by Scumhunter on May 15, 2016 15:51:20 GMT -5
From kfdm.com:
Nearly 14 years after a little girl's horrific death, the Orange Police Department says it remains determined to find her killer.
"How can someone have information and not tell?" says Orange Police Department Capt. Robert Enmon. "We're 14 years later. Now, if you have information, give us a call. "
July 4, 2002, just weeks shy of her 5th birthday, investigators say little Dannarriah Finley was taken from her North Johns street home in Orange.
When police were alerted, they began to search for the missing girl. Two days later, the community and more police departments joined in on the search, all of them hoping to find the little girl alive.
July 8, 2002, the search party received crushing news.
"We were notified by the Port Arthur Police Department that a body of a child had been located on Pleasure Island," says Enmon. "It was quickly determined that that was our missing person Dannarriah Finley."
Her small body was wrapped in a sheet. Investigators say she had been raped and strangled.
If you have any information on the crime, you can contact the Orange Police Department at (409) 883-1095. You can also contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at (409) 833-TIPS.
"How she suffered," says Deborah Mitchell, who works for the school Finley attended. "My husband happened to be one of the detectives on that case at the time and I saw him just crumble and cry."
Mitchell works for the North Early Learning Center in the West Orange Cove Consolidated Independent School District as a Family Services Manager.
She remembers Finley for her smile.
"Beautiful, beautiful child," says Mitchell. "Just a beautiful child."
Mitchell joined the search party in 2002. Looking back, she thinks about the future the girl could have had.
"We just think about 18-years-old, beautiful young lady, possibly going to college," says Mitchell. "Disappointment, that will never happen."
Finley's body is buried in Orange's Magnolia Cemetery. Her picture sits just above the headstone.
Mitchell has little sympathy for the person who ended Finley's life.
"If you're so bold to do this act, then reveal yourself," says Mitchell.
If the killer doesn't reveal himself, Orange Police are hoping DNA evidence eventually does. They resubmitted some to the FBI in 2014 only to receive no matches.
"Early as January of this year, we actually was contacted by a sheriff's department up in Colorado," says Enmon. "They had a person who may have had information over this that was thoroughly investigated and it turned out not to have anything to do with our case."
Still, Enmon believes the answer is out there somewhere.
"Bad guys talk," he says. "Someone out there knows something. Someone out there heard someone mention something. Even if it's just 'Hey I remember that case, and so and so said something about this,' anything like that, call us."
Orange Police say the person of interest in Finley's horrific murder remains the same person it was in 2002.
Investigators say they just need someone to come forward with key information.
Mitchell says solving the crime is everyone's responsibility.
"We have to take the responsibility as a community," says Mitchell. "We say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to get through trauma."
kfdm.com/news/local/the-unsolved-murder-of-dannarriah-finley
Thoughts? I hate to say it but this seems to once again be a case of a minority child crime case not receiving as much attention as that of their white counterparts. This case is horrific and should have been all over the news, but as far as I know, hasn't received much publicity outside of Texas.
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