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A 12-year-old girl described by neighbours as kind and quiet was discovered dead in her home by her mother just hours after sending a chilling text message.
‘Someone is knocking at the door,’ wrote Yhoana Arteaga in a text to her mum around 5:30pm. By the time her mum, sister, 14, and brother, 10, returned home at 6.45pm – Yhoana was dead.
Sheila Gentry, the Arteaga’s neighbour in their Goodletsville trailer park community, told The Tennessean she returned home to flashing police lights, and witnessed Yhoana’s mum screaming her daughter’s name and being escorted from their home by officers.
‘I’ve never seen anything this brutal in my entire career,’ Nashville Police Sergeant David Kautzman told reporters.
A spokesperson for the police told The Tennessean that the death was caused by ‘blunt force trauma’.
‘Yhoana was, frankly, brutally murdered,’ said Don Aaron.
The shocking killing has left the trailer park shaken.
‘She was happy all the time, she was always polite,’ recalls Ms Gentry.
‘This is a quiet trailer park, We all try to keep an eye out for each other.’
Police suspect the killer was known to the victim and are appealing for further information.
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