A Texas teenager who went missing as she was on her way to church was found dead in her crashed minivan in Dallas on Monday morning. Eighteen-year-old Zoe Hastings left her house for a class at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday evening. Her parents reported her missing to the police after she did not show up, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Hastings was discovered the next day after a man who was driving his daughter to school saw a car that had crashed in a creek that was just nearby the church and called 911.
Joe Noriega had been flagged down by another man saying a girl in the van needed his help, but he disappeared before the police had turned up. "When I saw the scene I just knew it was foul play," Noriega said, according to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.
Dallas police said that Hastings died due to "obvious homicidal violence," and not during the crash itself. But they did not comment further on how she may have died and are still in the hunt for a suspect, according to WFAA.
Officer Rob Sherwin of the Dallas Police Department also revealed that there is "a lot of evidence" from the minivan and will be examined.
Police were seen towing the van from the creek and dusting for fingerprints, the New York Daily News reported.
