SAN ANTONIO — A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the capital murder of a 17-year-old girl found dead in a ditch in March, authorities say.
San Antonio Police say a juvenile is accused in the strangulation death of Kaitlin Hernandez, who reportedly left her northeast-side home with a male friend on the evening of March 12 and didn't return home.
Authorities say the family called the teen's phone, to no avail.
Eventually, an unknown man answered the phone and said he found the cell in a drainage ditch. That man met with the family to return the phone and cooperated with the investigation.
Hernandez's family then called authorities, who began searching for the teen. Her naked body was eventually found under a bridge in a drainage culvert in the 7600 block of Dell Oak, only a few hours after she was last seen.
Officers said Hernandez's body showed signs of trauma and possible sexual assault. She also appeared to be dragged to the location where she was found. The medical examiner confirmed Hernandez had been strangled.
A teenage boy was last seen with Hernandez, but according to authorities there wasn't enough evidence to charge him or anyone else early on.
Investigators continued their search for answers and determined the teenage boy was the main suspect in the case. DNA was then taken from the suspect and Hernandez; he was taken into custody after DNA results came back.
'Why did he do it?'
The teen appeared before Judge Cruz Shaw on Wednesday, where KENS 5 was the only news outlet in the room. Representatives for the state told the judge the teen remains a danger to himself or others.
Juveniles aren’t eligible for bail, so he will remain in custody until his next appearance on May 15.
Meanwhile, Hernandez's loved ones are left with a small sense of closure amid heartbreak in the wake of the arrest. They say they knew the boy, calling him someone Kaitlin trusted.
Now, they say, they don't know who to trust.
“It has affected all of our nieces, nephews, my children mentally," said Hernandez's aunt, Crystal Barron-Rodriguez. "They cannot trust their own friends.”
Barron-Rodriguez said the fact the suspect is 15 years old doesn't make a difference in the sentence they hope is handed down.
“My niece was 15 once, my niece was only 17 when he took her life" she said. "It doesn’t matter how old this minor is.”
The family is seeking justice, but not the death penalty.
“We want him to be served as an adult, not as a child," Barron-Rodriguez said. "Why? Because what he did to Kaitlin, the gruesome act the gruesome violence that he left my niece in. He deserves to be punished as an adult, not as a child.”
Kaitlin grandmother, Alicia, is left with only one question.
“I want to know: Why? Why did he do it?”
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