Texas teen arrested in Kaitlin Hernandez's murder months after teen found dead, naked in ditch
A 15-year-old Texas boy is accused of murdering 17-year-old Kaitlin Hernandez in her San Antonio neighborhood in March.
Hernandez went on a walk around her neighborhood with a male friend around 7:30 p.m. on March 12. When she did not return home later that evening, her family reported her missing, and authorities found her hours later, dead in a ditch without any clothing on.
"Investigators were able to make an arrest after DNA from the victim matched the person last seen with the victim," the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) said in a statement following the juvenile suspect's arrest last week.
When Hernandez first went missing, her family called her phone, but she did not answer.
FAMILY OF TEXAS TEEN BRUTALLY MURDERED ON WALK DEMANDS ANSWERS: ‘HUG YOUR LOVED ONES’
"Later, an unknown man answered the phone saying he found the phone in a drainage ditch," the SAPD said. "The man met with the victim’s family member at a convenience store to return the phone. The man cooperated with the investigation."
Officers searched the area where the man located Hernandez's phone and found her body, which "showed signs of strangulation and a possible sexual assault." The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Hernandez's cause of death was strangulation.
TEXAS POLICE HUNT KILLER AFTER TEEN FOUND DEAD IN DITCH ‘LIKE AN ANIMAL’
"The victim appeared to be dragged to the location where she was found," the SAPD said.
Authorities interviewed the male friend who she went walking with that evening, but there was not enough evidence for officials to bring any charges against that individual.
However, as the investigation continued, it became "apparent" to police that "the male friend was the suspect in this case." Authorities took DNA samples from both the victim and the male subject and sent those samples to the Bexar County Crime Lab. Results linked the male subject to the victim.
"Based on DNA and other evidence, the suspect was arrested and taken into custody without incident. This is an active and ongoing investigation," the SAPD said.
Crystal Rodriguez, Hernandez's aunt, told FOX 29 San Antonio that the suspect was someone her daughter knew.
"[I]t was someone she knew. Someone she played with," she told the outlet. "Someone she trusted. We knew him for years. And now it has affected all our nieces and nephews. My children, mentally, can't trust their own friends. They don't know what they did to my family."
TEXAS TEEN LIZBETH MEDINA MURDER: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT RAFAEL ROMERO
She added that she was beginning to lose hope, but detectives "were working day and night" answering their calls and texts.
"They responded to everything, every question we had so I know they were working hard on this case. But whenever I got the call, I just fell to my knees because y'all got him off the streets, but Kaitlin can't come back," she told FOX 29.
GO HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS DIGITAL
Rodriguez previously described her niece to Fox News Digital as a "loving" and "kind" girl with "a lot of dreams." She was set to graduate high school this spring.
"Kaitlin didn't hate anybody. Nobody that we're aware of hated Kaitlin. She just got baptized last year. She was getting more involved into God. She was going to church. She loved and cared for animals. She was going to be a veterinarian after she graduated," Rodriguez said in March.