ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: Jakarah Lopez-Moore, a 16-year-old girl from Rochester, New York, who went missing in August, was found dead in a wooded area near a canal on October 14.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office identified her remains and determined her cause of death to be homicide on Tuesday, October 17, according to Rochester police.
When was Jakarah Lopez-Moore last seen?
Lopez-Moore was reported missing by her family on August 29, after she left her apartment on Weld Street at around 1.45 am on August 27 and never returned.
Her family told the Democrat and Chronicle that she was seen getting into a silver car with tinted windows when she left, but police do not have any such information at this point.
However, as per Captain Frank Umbrino of the Rochester Police Department, at the time of her disappearance, her family told officers that they believed she could be in danger.
How was Jakarah Lopez-Moore found?
According to reports, on October 14, a group of people fishing along a canal in Rochester located the body of missing Moore in a wooded area behind 5 Vanguard Parkway and alerted the police.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office identified the remains to be Lopez-Moore's and said she died due to homicide but did not state how she was killed.
Her remains were decomposed and it was apparent that her body had been there for "an unknown period of time," Umbrino said.
Who killed Jakarah Lopez-Moore?
Umbrino, Fox News reported, said during a press conference on Tuesday, October 17, that the department’s murder investigation is “very active” and that they are keeping certain information under wraps.
He also said that the area where Lopez-Moore was found is surrounded by industrial buildings and railroad tracks and that her body had been there for “at least over a month”.
“Quite frankly, we’re rather lucky that we found her when we did,” Umbrino said.
Jakarah Lopez-Moore's family says they received ransom texts
Police, as per the report, said her family told them that they received ransom text messages from unknown numbers.
Umbrino said that those were false and that “idiots out there” were trying to take advantage of the missing person's case.
Lopez-Moore’s family said that it was unusual for her to leave without contacting any of her siblings or to be inactive on social media.
Umbrino said that Rochester currently has 63 open missing juvenile cases and that determining which ones to alert to the public is a “delicate balancing act.”
He urged anyone who knew Lopez-Moore or has information about her disappearance to contact the police or Crime Stoppers.
“Somebody knows something, and that person has to find it inside themselves to call us. Put everything aside, call us and give us the information we need,” Umbrino said.
