Jul 24, 2008 11:46 pm US/Eastern
Police Arrest Teen After Girl's Body Is Found
Police: ''We had no reason to believe that she was in danger... based on our conversations with the family"
Police Had Originally Said No Foul Play Was Suspected
Broward Crimestoppers: 954-493-TIPS
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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A foul odor led a resident to a decomposing body by a Ft. Lauderdale dumpster.
CBS
Ft. Lauderdale Police say they've arrested the suspect who killed 13-year-old Neica Gibbs, whose body was found next to a dumpster Tuesday night.
Officers arrested a 15-year-old neighborhood boy who allegedly knew the victim and charged him with murder. Gibbs went to the Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood several weeks ago to visit a friend, and then she disappeared only to have her body found Tuesday evening near the dumpster that serves the trailer homes she was visiting.
"They became involved in a verbal and physical altercation which ultimately led to the death of Neica Gibbs," said Frank Sousa, with Ft. Lauderdale Police.
A woman who wished to be identified as Toni said Neica was a good student who recently graduated from 8th grade at Sunrise Middle School.
Weeks ago Neica went to visit friends, the Pendergrasses, at a trailer park in the 2700 block of Southwest Sixth Drive. Her body was found wrapped in blue tarp at a trash bin not far from the trailer home she was visiting.
Linda Pendergrass saw the body after she was called to the area by another neighbor. Neica was staying with Pendergrass's daughter when she went missing.
Pendergrass told CBS4 Reporter Ted Scouten that she remembered the girl saying, "'I don't want to go home,' she cried. 'I want to stay here with you miss, Linda.'"
That Tuesday night as police removed the dumpster Pendergrass prayed the body was not Neica Gibbs.
"The first thing that popped into my mind when she said a young teenager, I thought it was my niece," said Linda Pendergrass. "I just panicked, I just went like 'Oh God please don't let it be her.'
The body has been turned over to the county's medical examiner who will determine the cause of death.
Friends and family were visiting the apartment in Ft. Lauderdale, where Neica lived with her grandmother, 12-year-old brother William, and an aunt.
"Nothing's gonna bring my grandaughter back," said her grandmother Barbara Queer. "Why did he have to kill her?"
Elizabeth and Wayne Manning are grieving the loss of a girl they felt was like her niece. Elizabeth said, "It just hurts to see that somebody would hurt somebody who's so beautiful."
Many visitors cried, asking the same questions: How did this happen? And why to Neica?
Crime scene investigators strung crime scene tape around the mobile home where Gibbs was last seen alive Thursday night. A CSI then snapped photos outside and inside the house. Tonight CBS4 has learned that the 15-year-old allegedly killed Nieca, then wrapped her body up, and left it near the dumpster where it was found Tuesday evening.Ironically one of the people to find the body was the mother of the 15-year-old boy. Police do not believe she knew of the murder. It will be up to prosecutors to decide the degree of murder.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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