Last week, I mentioned Kayla Lorrain Wood, 16, who was found stabbed to death in a burning house in Moreno Valley. It would appear that someone murdered her, and then set the abandoned house ablaze to hide the evidence. I asked the question,
But what drives a person to murder a 16-year-old girl then set fire to a house to dispose of the body? Drugs? Sex? Boyfriend? Girlfriend? Family pastor? Something darker and more twisted than even I can come up with?The answer, it would appear, is a little more complicated.
Michelle Linder of Riverside emailed me a couple of links the other day that shed a little light on Kayla's life.
The first, is a Press Enterprise story about the incident.
Kayla Lorrain Wood's short life was defined by turbulence and violence. She was sexually abused. She was diagnosed with a mental disorder. She ran away from foster care in two states and she was suspected of prostitution.There are so many things in this story that speak of tragedy, heartache and a desperate plea for help that either never came, or came too late.
The blond, blue-eyed girl had been missing for nine days, after again running away from a group home. Kayla's body was found with her aunt's phone number tucked in her pocket. Relatives say they think she just wanted to come home.I don't think I can imagine more tragic circumstances.
The situation opens a number of questions. Why did she run away? How did she get out of the group home she was in? Why weren't her family members told of her absence until after she was discovered dead?
The details of Kayla's life paint a pretty bleak picture. Substance abuse charges against her parents, molested at the age of 10, raped at 13. She was put into the group home just before her 14th birthday in 2004 after her mother was arrested.
In the last month, Kayla attempted to run away from the foster home a least 10 times. Members of her family had been attempting to gain custody of her for some time.
Kayla reportedly wrote a letter to a friend saying a pimp had picked her up in front of the Moreno Valley group home and dropped her off in an Arizona park, her grandmother Vivian Wamsley said.In all of this there is only one thin, silver lining.
Kayla returned July 27 and in the letter she named the man who took her across state lines and Kayla said he threatened her.
Investigators were able to locate and arrest three primary suspects (1 adult, 2 juveniles) in this case. They were located in Moreno Valley and Riverside, interviewed and subsequently booked into Robert Presley Detention Center and Juvenile Hall for the homicide. The name of the male adult suspect will not be released at this time due to the ongoing investigation.The investigation into her death is ongoing. If you know anything, please call the Moreno Valley Police Department at 951-486-6700 or Investigator Seckinger at the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-2777.
Thanks for the links, Michelle.
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3 comments:
The unfortanate thing is their are 1,000's of Kayla's. I worked as a LA County Social Worker and Probation Officer. Check out this link all these kids have runaway from group homes or foster homes....I wonder where they are running from and where they are going.
http://missingkidsla.org/
I think the systems dont have enough control over the kids, which is hard I know, I have two foster kids i care for in my home and when they first arrived where angry and maybe rude or "bad" kids like some people would say but they just need some one who will give them the time to care for them. The system doesnt care when someone runs away they just tell the foster parent not to worry about it and we never hear about it again. Its tragic to know this happened to this young girl....but if someone would have made an attempt to find her or help her she might have had a different future.
ok, well i know kayla on a personal level i lived with her in a group home in ontario,ca from mid months in 2004 till january 2005 when i moved. she was my roommate, we would have deep talks about life and how all she wanted was to be a model. she was a very caring person i would come home from work late and she would ask if i wanted something to eat or just how was my day she always told me she loved me as i did her. she ran away one night a few weeks after they moved her to a differnt room. she told me she was going to run away i told the staff and they didnt believe me a 30 minutes past and she was gone. she came back the next morning while i was at court. she told me she just needed to get out. we talked and she promised me she would not run away again in this house as long as i was there. she became like my lil sister i protected her from the school bullies and from just rude people she was differenr if you talked to her you would know that there was somthing mentaly not all there and alot of guys didnt care they would hit on her and try to get at her just for sex. she loved the attention from guys. All she was looking for was someone to love her. In the group homes she said she felt like noone loved her that is why she would leave and because all they would do was make fun of her. yea we would joke around with her and make fun of her too but we never said anything to hurt her. we all joked around and we got her to joke around as well.the best thing was to see her smile she was always sad so i told her to always be strong and know that what they say will never matter as long as she put her dreams infront of her and fallowed them. she always talked about her grandma and lil bro she wanted to go back with them, but she knew she couldn't. christmas of 2005 she went to visit her grandma she was the happest ever. i only got to spend a few more weeks with her after that day. i never thaught that this would happen to her when she ran away the first time we told her there are very very bad people out there that dont care that will use you, that will rape and kill you!!!! she told us she knew and that she was sorry. i was moved to moreno valley march 23 2005. i wish i would have known they sent her to moreno valley. then maybe i could have protected her. i was out side my house on septeber 9, 2006 and i saw the smoke it was only two streets away i lived on cotttonwood and she was killed on cactus. i didnt think anything of the smoke until three weeks later then i knew the bright eyed kayla was gone all she ever wanted was to be loved, to have someone pay attention to her to listen to her dreams. and these guys took advantage of it and took her life. she will always be loved and very well missed.
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