Arrijana Hill, 16 YO, Found Murdered Inside A Pearland, TX Home

[MuffyBee]

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Woman-found-dead-inside-Pearland-home-251634001.html
16-year-old 'sweet' high school student found dead inside Pearland home
March 22, 2014


Credit: Facebook photo

PEARLAND, Texas—Pearland police are investigating after a 16-year-old girl was found dead inside a home Friday afternoon. Her death has been ruled a homicide. The victim, Arrijana Hill, was a student at Dawson High School in Pearland.
 
Pearland Police confirmed that the teen was found dead in a home inside a gated community on E. Cedar Hollow Drive near McHard. Another woman, the homeowner, made the discovery and called 911. Police got to the home just after 5 p.m.
“It kind of made me wonder if it was somebody that she knew and that was a sad thought. To think that that could happen to that sweet girl right at the end of the school year,” Laird said.
 
Anyone with information that could help solve this crime and bring Arrijana and her family justice is urged to call Brazoria County Crimestoppers at 800-460-2222.


According to investigators, a woman came home to find another woman dead inside the home, located on E. Cedar Hollow Drive near McHard.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Pearland-teen-found-dead-at-home-was-homicide-5340298.php
Pearland teen found dead at home was homicide victim
March 22, 2014

A Pearland teenager found dead at her home was the victim of homicide, police said.

Arrijana Hill, 16, was found about 5 p.m. March 21 at her home in the 3200 block of East Cedar Hollow Drive, the Pearland Police Department said in a news release.

The homeowner discovered the Dawson High School student and called 911.

"The death was not from natural causes and an autopsy will be performed by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office," the release said.

Police would not say whether there were signs of a struggle or forced entry at the home in The Lakes at Country Place, an affluent gated community.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.click2houston.com/news/police-investigate-suspicious-death-in-pearland-gated-neighborhood/25101306
Police investigate suspicious death in Pearland gated neighborhood
Police find teenager dead inside her home
Published March 21, 2014, Updated March 22, 2014

EARLAND, Texas -
Pearland police are investigating a suspicious death in a gated neighborhood.

Police said the body was found in a home near the 3200 block of East Cedar Hollow Drive.

Police said the female homeowner dialed 911 at 5 p.m. Friday. When police arrived, they found a woman dead inside the home. They say she lived there.

 
Police confirmed that the woman was in fact a victim of homicide.  According to reports, the female victim, 16-year-old Arrijana Hill, was a student at Dawson High School in Pearland.

Police said they do not have a suspect in custody and wouldn't say if there were any signs of forced entry into the home.

As this is an ongoing investigation, further details will be released when they become available from investigators.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/pearland/news/pearland-police-investigating-murder-of-dawson-high-school-student/article_5257a2d7-ece9-5541-bec8-92d524b745be.html
Pearland Police investigating murder of Dawson High School student
Posted March 21, 2014, Updated March 22, 2014

 
Officers were called to a home located located in the 3200 block of East Cedar Hollow Drive around 5 p.m. after a woman who shared the home with the victim discovered her lifeless body and called 911.
Police officials have identified the victim as Dawson High School student Arrijana Hill No information related to the cause of death has been released but said no suspects are in custody at this time. Neighbors reported hearing gun shots but police have not revealed any details except to say the death was not from natural causes.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Hundreds-pray-for-justice-in-mysterious-murder-of-16-year-old-Pearland-student-252368221.html
Hundreds pray for justice in mysterious murder of 16-year-old Pearland student
March 25, 2014

 
Arrijana Hill’s body was discovered inside a home Friday night on East Cedar Hollow Drive in an upscale guard gated community.
Police said a female resident made the disturbing find and dialed 911. Investigators have not identified the person who made that discovery.
“We don’t have any answers. The biggest question is why. I can’t make up any answers,” said parent Akima Taylor.
A service held outside Cross Roads Community Church in Pearland Tuesday night honored the teenager missed by so many people.
“Arrijana was a great person, a great classmate and a great teammate,” said Richard Smith, a classmate and friend.
Friends described Arrijana as a girl liked by all.
She was involved in both track and volleyball, and her teammates were understandably consumed with emotions at Tuesday’s service.
“She had a the most beautiful smile. It would brighten everyone’s day,” said one friend.
Hill leaves behind her parents and two brothers.
A wake has been scheduled for Friday, March 28th beginning at 7 p.m. at Cross Roads Church. The funeral will also take place at the church on Saturday, March 29th beginning at 2 p.m.

[Green Eyes]

Our world is going crazy. They said she lived there and she leaves behind her parents and 2 bothers. That the owner found her and called 911. What am I missing. She wasn't living at home with family? So sad another young person taken to soon.

[MuffyBee]

Our world is going crazy. They said she lived there and she leaves behind her parents and 2 bothers. That the owner found her and called 911. What am I missing. She wasn't living at home with family? So sad another young person taken to soon.

I've been trying to figure out some of the same things you noted, GE. When I saw the first article (which I posted), it read as if someone came home and found a dead unknown female in their house. That's why the subject line reads "...Found Murdered Inside A Pearland, TX Home."  The articles thereafter indicate Arrijana lived in the home she was found murdered in, but there is nothing telling us who else lives or owns the home, which would be at least one other person (which would be the woman who found her), and nothing about the relationship of the two.  At first I thought it was poor journalism, but now I'm wondering if there's something else? One possibility is she was staying in a different neighborhood to be able to attend a different high school or something like that? 

[Green Eyes]

Our world is going crazy. They said she lived there and she leaves behind her parents and 2 bothers. That the owner found her and called 911. What am I missing. She wasn't living at home with family? So sad another young person taken to soon.

I've been trying to figure out some of the same things you noted, GE. When I saw the first article (which I posted), it read as if someone came home and found a dead unknown female in their house. That's why the subject line reads "...Found Murdered Inside A Pearland, TX Home."  The articles thereafter indicate Arrijana lived in the home she was found murdered in, but there is nothing telling us who else lives or owns the home, which would be at least one other person (which would be the woman who found her), and nothing about the relationship of the two.  At first I thought it was poor journalism, but now I'm wondering if there's something else? One possibility is she was staying in a different neighborhood to be able to attend a different high school or something like that? 

I thought the same thing about the poor reporting. Yes she could have been staying with a friend to able to attend the school. It seems odd her parents weren't named. Her friends at school were named. I hope they find who ever killed her. And that there is justice for her death. RIP Arrijana. 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.khou.com/news/crime/Police--16-year-old-was-pregnant-with-twins-at-time-of-murder-babies-father-charged--259110551.html
Teen boy accused of killing 16-year-old who was pregnant with his twins
May 13, 2014

PEARLAND, Texas – The friend of a 16-year-old girl who was found stabbed to death inside her Pearland home in March was arrested at his high school Tuesday and charged with capital murder, according to Pearland Police.
The teen boy was taken into custody at noon at Pasadena Memorial High School and transported to the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention Center. His identity has not been released because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.
The boy is accused of killing Arrijana Hill, who was a student at Dawson High School. Arrijana’s mother arrived to their home in an upscale gated community one Friday afternoon to find her daughter dead. The Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Arrijana had been strangled and stabbed. The death of the girl, who was described as “sweet” by others, left the community shocked.
During the course of the investigation, it was learned that Arrijana was pregnant with twins when she died. DNA analysis determined that the suspect, who also attended Dawson High School at the time Arrijana was brutally murdered, was the father of the unborn babies.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/pearland/article/Teen-arrested-in-slaying-of-Pearland-girl-was-5474868.php
Teen charged in pregnant classmate's death
May 13, 2014

A Pearland teen was arrested Tuesday in the killing of a 16-year-old girl who was pregnant with his twins, officials said.

Investigators found Arrijana Hill's body nearly two months ago in her Pearland home, according to police.

The father, arrested at Pasadena Memorial High School, was charged with capital murder after investigators learned that Hill was pregnant with twins.

Police said the teen charged was 16 when the crime occurred, and that he and Hill both attended Glenda Dawson High School and knew each other.

He is being held at the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention center.

Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne declined to comment about the motive for the slaying or any other aspect of the case.

"It is important to us that this 17-year-old male be held accountable and the family of Arrijana Hill receive justice. She was brutally murdered," Yenne said.

The teen is still considered a juvenile because he was 16 at the time the crime occurred.

"We will be moving to certify him to stand trial as an adult," Yenne said.

Hill was a junior at Dawson when her body was found March 21. Her killing and the circumstances around it - her body was found in her family's home in a gated community on East Cedar Hollow Drive - shocked Pearland residents and the members of her church.

Renea Ivy, a Pasadena schools spokeswoman, said that the student charged had transferred to Pasadena Memorial on March 27. According to the preliminary investigation by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office, Hill was strangled and stabbed, police said. DNA analysis also revealed that the teen charged was the father of Hill's unborn children. Police have not released other details about the slaying, including whether there were signs of struggle or forced entry at the home in The Lakes at Country Place, an affluent gated community.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9536315
Pearland police: DNA evidence leads to arrest in murder of pregnant teen
May 13, 2014

PEARLAND, TX (KTRK) -- Pearland police have made an arrest in the murder of a pregnant high school teenager.
Police say the suspect murdered 16-year-old Dawson High School student Arrijana Hill in March. Her body was found inside her home in a gated community off East Cedar Hollow Drive in Pearland. The medical examiner says Hill was strangled and stabbed. She was pregnant with twins at the time of her death.
 
Police say DNA evidence led them to the suspect, who was an acquaintance of the victim. The DNA analysis also determined the suspect is the father of the unborn twins.

Police say the suspect, who was a juvenile at the time of the offense, was taken into custody around noon on Tuesday at Pasadena Memorial High School.

"He was attending Dawson High School, he was a classmate of the deceased. However, about a week after the murder occurred, he transferred to Pasadena ISD," said Pearland Police Department Lt. Patrick Savage.

The 17-year-old suspect now faces capital murder charges and is being held at the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention Center.
 

[texasmom]

 

So sad, but glad they've made an arrest.

[Nut44x4]

Egads 

[MuffyBee]

(bolded by me)  It's very sad, but we've seen a number of times where pregnant females are murdered by the male to avoid financial responsibility (child support). It wouldn't surprise me if that is the motive in this case. JMHO   


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/15/arrijana-hill_n_5332010.html
Teen Accused Of Killing Pregnant Classmate May Face Adult Charges
May 15, 2014

A 17-year-old Texas teen is likely to face adult charges in the death of a pregnant classmate, who was expecting twins. Authorities are saying he was the father of the unborn children.

Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne told The Houston Chronicle her office plans to ask the court to have the teenager tried as an adult in the March slaying of 16-year-old Arrijana Hill.
 

Police say Hill's family found her dead inside their Pearland home on March 21. An autopsy by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office revealed the teen died from manual strangulation and stab wounds.
"During the course of the investigation, it was found that Ms. Hill was pregnant with twins at the time of her death," the Pearland Police Department said in a May 13 press release.

In an interview with News One, Lt. Patrick Savage said investigators were able to quickly identify a suspect in the case, whom he described as a known friend of Hill's who attended the same high school.

"They were looking at this suspect from the beginning," Savage said, without elaborating.

DNA analysis and a paternity test revealed the suspect was also the expectant father of Hill's unborn twins, police said.

On May 13, the teen was taken into custody at Pasadena Memorial High School and transported to the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention center. Because Hill was pregnant at the time of her death, authorities charged the suspect with capital murder.
 
Police have yet to release any more details about the slaying, including whether they have determined a possible motive, and Yenne did not return a call for comment from The Huffington Post on Thursday.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Closing-arguments-begin-in-pearland-teens-murder-6219184.php
Pearland teen guilty in slaying of pregnant girlfriend
After closing arguments, killer of pregnant girlfriend, 16, gets life term
April 23, 2015, Updated April 24, 2015

ANGLETON - A jury late Thursday found Ryan Matthews guilty of both counts of capital murder in the slaying of his 16-year-old girlfriend, pregnant by him with twins.

The jury deliberated for five hours after hearing Matthews admit that he lied to detectives when questioned about Arrijana Hill's death.

"Yes, that was a lie," Matthews admitted to Assistant Brazoria County District Attorney Travis Townsend, who asked why he told police he wore a different backpack the day Hill was slain.

Judge Patrick Sebesta sentenced Matthews to life, the only option he had.

A juror, who declined to give his name, said, "it was his lying, it didn't add up." He also said another factor in the verdict was Matthews' revelation on the witness stand that he had thrown away the shirt he had worn the day of the slaying.

The Pearland teen's testimony came just before the jury got the case in the ninth day of his trial. Matthews, who faced two charges of capital murder, was accused of strangling and stabbing Hill after a sexual tryst because he feared the responsibilities of fatherhood would ruin the future he envisioned for himself as a college athlete.

Under tough and relentless questioning from Townsend, Matthews repeatedly admitted to lying to police on the day of the slaying.

"In fact, you're a liar?" Townsend asked Matthews. "I can be," said Matthews, 18, who has been certified to be tried as an adult even though he was 16 at the time of the slaying.

Matthews, who remained unruffled with a slight smile, also admitted that he was easily angered and that he lied to police because he feared he would be considered a suspect in Hill's murder.

Feared being a suspect

He said he was not lying on the witness stand and that he lied to police because he was distraught about Hill's death and because he did not want his parents to know he had skipped school to have sex with Hill.

Matthews also said for the first time that he had thrown in the trash a blue shirt he wore at Hill's house because it had a hole in it. Prosecutors said he got rid of it because it was bloodstained.

Under questioning by defense attorney Tommy James Stickler, Matthews said that when he left Hill's bedroom in her parents' house in a gated Pearland community on March 21 last year, "She was alive and she was fine."

In his closing argument Stickler told the four women and eight men on the jury that Matthews' misstatements to police should not be taken seriously. "People say things that aren't correct, it's not because they are lying," he said. He accused police of elevating the significance of otherwise trivial evidence, pointing to prosecutors' reference to testimony that Matthews had twice before left by the front door during previous trysts and had hugged Hill as he left, but on the day of the slaying he left by the back door and Hill was not seen.

"They are making something out of nothing," Stickler said.

He tried to cast doubt about blood found on Matthews clothing and DNA evidence, saying the blood tests were inconclusive and the DNA only proved they were together having sex.

The knife was never found, he pointed out.

Stickler also suggested that the killer might have been a member of a landscaping crew that was mowing a lawn across the street from the Hill residence in the 3200 block of East Cedar Hollow in the Lakes at Country Place community.

'What about the baby?'

In an impassioned rebuttal, prosecutor Kurt Sistrunk suggested Stickler's criticisms of the investigation were unreasonable. "What would Mr. Stickler have us bring? Video?" Sistrunk said. "The only witness is dead because this defendant killed her."

Matthews was the only one with motive and the chance to kill Hill in the 22 minutes from the time he left her house until her brother came home, Townsend said in his closing argument.

Townsend argued that Matthews lost his temper and strangled and stabbed Hill, slicing her carotid artery, then knocking furniture askew to simulate a break-in. Police said the scene appeared to have been staged and that cash and other valuables in the house were untouched. There was no sign of forced entry.

"After the sex he killed her because she asked a question: 'What about the baby?' " Sistrunk told jurors.

Prosecutors said traces of blood were found on the pants he wore at Hill's house on the day of the slaying and on his shoes.Matthews could be eligible for parole after 40 years.