ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – On the day a girl was going to celebrate her 10th birthday, she was found dead in her family’s apartment by Albuquerque police officers, her dismembered remains wrapped in a burning blanket.
Details of what Gov. Susana Martinez and law enforcement officials described as an unspeakable crime emerged Thursday in a criminal complaint made public and filed against the girl’s mother, her boyfriend and his cousin. The three were taken into custody late Wednesday night.
Police say the girl was injected with methamphetamine, sexually assaulted, strangled and stabbed before being dismembered. They did not identify her because authorities were still trying Thursday to reach some relatives to notify them of the girl’s death.
A caller told a police dispatcher before dawn Wednesday that there was a disturbance in the apartment, said Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden. Officers who went to the apartment complex in a middle-class neighborhood found the gruesome crime scene.
“This is a horrific tragedy for our community,” Eden told reporters. “I want to assure the public that we will pursue justice and we will make sure that we exhaust every resource into this investigation.”