Inset: Rubi Perez (Obituary). Background: The cemetery and field near where Rubi's body was found in Great Bend, Kan. (Google Maps).
A Kansas 14-year-old boy is behind bars after a missing teenage girl was found bludgeoned to death behind a pile of dirt.
On Thursday, Barton County Attorney J. Colin Reynolds announced the as-yet-unnamed boy stands accused of murder in the first degree over the death of 14-year-old Rubi Perez.
The girl was reported missing on the night of April 8, after attending a class at Holy Family School in Great Bend – a small town some 100 miles northwest of Wichita. Her body was found late the next morning in Veterans Memorial Park, across the street from the town cemetery. Both are adjacent to the Holy Family Catholic Parish Center.
"Great Bend Police Officers responded to the 4700 block of 17th Street Terrace in Great Bend in reference to a juvenile female located behind a large dirt pile," the police department announced in a press release. "The juvenile female was determined to be deceased."
The victim was an eighth grade student at Great Bend Middle School, which is located less than a mile east of the park and Catholic complex. Rubi's alleged killer was also her classmate there.
The events have led to an outpouring of mourning, remembrance, and speculation among the middle school's student body, according to a report by Wichita-based ABC affiliate KAKE.
"This morning, I thought it was okay, yesterday felt off," one of Rubi's friends told the TV station. "It just seemed a little different. You know, something told me after school to go tell her bye. I didn't listen to it. I just thought she'd be okay this morning. Then I get to school, everyone's sad. I'm like, 'Where's Rubi? Oh, maybe she was at breakfast.' Then I found out she's missing."
Police were alerted just after 8:30 p.m. on the night in question; Rubi's body was found around 9:10 a.m. the next morning.
Investigators were hard to miss as the girl's remains were uncovered amid the massive mound of dirt, which appears to be the byproduct of some construction project.
"I noticed off in the distance there was a big pile of dirt over there there was some people standing on top of that dirt," a Great Bend resident told KAKE, while gesturing near the cemetery. "We were around the railroad tracks in the area and they had it blocked off at this entrance over here and blocks over there with some barricades and there was actually a lot of cops, maybe 10 or 15 or so."
News of the grim discovery quickly spread at the middle school.
"We get the teacher, she's on her phone, and then she's like, 'They found her,'" the slain girl's friend continued. "I about ran out of the classroom to go to the other girls, you know? Well, she just said, 'Wait, come here.' And then she sat me down and said they didn't find her alive."
Rubi's obituary remembers her fondly:
She was a standout student among her peers and teachers, always spreading positivity to anyone she came across. She was an exceptional athlete that excelled at track, volleyball, and basketball. Rubi loved to do make up and enhance her already stunning natural beauty. Her legacy will live on in her sweet demeanor, smile, zest for life, and offering kindness always.
Law enforcement has yet to release her official cause of death, but in the absence of formal announcements, the victim's loved ones have filled in some of the blanks about the crime.
The earlier-quoted friend told KAKE she heard from a mother who knows Rubi's mother and that the girl died from blunt force trauma to the head caused by a cinder block.
In the aftermath of the killing, police surveyed the crime scene, conducted interviews, and executed several search warrants. The alleged killer was arrested later that same afternoon, police said. He is currently being detained in the Barton County Detention Center.
A detention hearing for the defendant is slated for April 21.
No motive for the murder has been floated as of this writing.
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