Police made an arrest on Tuesday in the death of a 9-year-old little Black girl whose body was found last week in a duffel bag in Hacienda Heights, California. The suspect is reportedly the boyfriend of the child’s mother.
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Prosecutors charged 38-year-old Emiel Hunt with the murder of Trinity Love Jones. He faces a maximum sentence of 50 years to life behind bars if he’s convicted, KTLA-TV reported.
Meanwhile, Trinity’s mother, Taquesta Graham, was still in custody as a person of interest but had not been arrested for her possible involvement with the killing. Graham, a registered sex offender, was convicted in 2009 of enticing a minor female for prostitution.
Hunt, who has a prior child abuse conviction from 2005, was taken into custody on Saturday near the San Diego International Airport.
His arrest marked the culmination of a mystery about Trinity’s identity after her body was discovered.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Friday night that the death of the then-unidentified girl was a homicide after her remains were found on March 5 near a horse and hiking trail.
Deputy Marvin Crowder said the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner called about 8:30 p.m. Friday to notify the sheriff’s office about the status update. It was previously designated a suspicious death investigation.
This homicide ruling confirmed what many had already suspected—she was killed intentionally.
The sheriff’s office released this statement about the case, “The victim was found partially inside a black rollaway type duffle bag … where her upper body was seen protruding. Although preliminary investigation initially led investigators to believe the victim was between the ages of seven and 10 years, further investigation with the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner determined the victim was a Black female between the ages of eight and 13. The young girl was found to be wearing a pink, long sleeve shirt with gray panda print pants (actual clothing depicted). She stood approx. 4 ft, 5 inch. tall and weighed about 55 lbs. No obvious signs of trauma were found on the victim’s body.”
Workers found her body in bushes near a popular trail. Investigators believed at the time that she was dumped there sometime on the evening of March 3.
One of the workers told KTLA that they were trimming trees in the area when they noticed a duffel bag.
“We seen the little girl’s head, but at that point, we thought it was a little boy because you couldn’t really see, like, everything,” he said. “She was covered up with grass, like the bush was kind of covering her hair, and then she was wrapped up in a blanket, and she was stuffed in a duffel bag.”
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