A 15-year-old boy, who has remained unnamed, lured Kailey Vijil,12, out of her Utah home by asking for help looking for his lost cat, then strangled her, leaving her body in a field with the shirt still around her neck, said prosecutors. The teen allegedly tried a similar ruse to trick another girl out of her home in suburban Salt Lake City about 20 minutes before moving on to Vijil's home, according to documents, reported the New York Post.
When the teen knocked on the door, just before midnight last Thursday, the girl's 14-year-old sister initially answered, but refused to go along with him. He asked Vijil instead, who agreed, according to People.
She was reported missing around 1:30 a.m. after Vijil's sister told their mother about the incident. Officers pinged her cell phone, which led them to a horse pasture where they found her body "lying in the field with a shirt wrapped around her neck." A medical examiner later ruled that the girl had died from strangulation.
After he was arrested, the teen acknowledged being with her in the field after she left her home, said authorities.
The teen—who already has a misdemeanor juvenile record for possession of drug paraphernalia, theft and burglary—is facing an aggravated murder charge in juvenile court. However, prosecutors asked the judge to allow him to be tried as an adult due to the severity of his crimes, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, according to news.com.au.
An aggravated murder charge typically carries the possibility of the death penalty, but the boy won't face capital punishment due to his age if that is the case. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the death penalty is unconstitutional for anyone who committed a crime while younger than 18.