Police say Adrian Jerry Gonzalez, 15, lay in wait before luring Madyson Middleton into his family’s apartment from a courtyard where she had been riding her scooter over the weekend. However, Santa Cruz police said they were able to find Middleton’s belongings inside Gonzalez’ apartment.
Advertisement
Shortly before 8 p.m. Monday, during a “secondary and more thorough canvass of the complex”, a Santa Cruz police detective discovered a small female body in a recycling bin.
Maddy – who would have started fourth grade next month at Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Elementary – knew the teenage boy, Police Chief Kevin Vogel said during an emotionally taut news conference Tuesday morning.
Investigators found evidence in the apartment linking the suspect to the crime.
“We heard that it was possibly a disgusting accident, that something went all wrong”, neighbor Jeannie Cartabiano told The Washington Post in a phone interview late Monday night.
A 43-year-old Santa Cruz resident who has had an artist’s studio at the Tannery for more than three years said, “Everyone has got to be in shock over this”.
Sam Amico, a 68-year-old who runs a printmaking gallery at the Tannery and has lived there, said the arts center seemed to be thriving.
A University of Cincinnati officer who shot a motorist during a traffic stop over a missing front license plate has been indicted on murder charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday, adding that the officer “purposely killed…” Photos show him proudly demonstrating his yo-yo tricks.
The caption of the clip reads: “The Dreams in which I’m Dying are the Best I’ve ever had”. Gonzalez could be assigned a lawyer at his arraignment Thursday.
The boy, whose name was not immediately released, was nearby when the girl’s body was discovered. “It was someone we all knew and liked”. Police said they have evidence tying him directly to Maddy.
Staff at the Tannery Arts Center office said they’ll have grief counselors for residents this week to help the children understand what happened over the last several days. As Gonzalez was posting footage of himself or someone else playing odes to suicide on the piano, hundreds of volunteers were just outside his apartment, desperately searching for signs of Maddy.
“We are confident in the charges we filed”, he said.
But some residents said what happened won’t keep them from allowing their kids to play freely.
“We’re just devastated. These are two of our kids, and one is dead and one has been taken away”.
Advertisement
“Through the lens of knowing about these terrible acts, you look at it completely different than if it was someone else’s 15-year-old son”, said Cordelia Anderson, founder of the National Coalition for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.
