3-year-old Neb. girl raped, killed as family slept
Sunday, May 24, 2009 - 09:19:06 pm CDT
SOUTH SIOUX CITY — A 29-year-old man accused of raping and suffocating a 3-year-old girl inside the South Sioux City home where her family was sleeping Saturday morning was in an Iowa jail Sunday, awaiting extradition to Nebraska.
De Jesus Melisio-Camacho was arrested in Sioux City, Iowa, around 6 a.m. Saturday, less than an hour-and-a-half after South Sioux City police got a call from the hospital where the girl was pronounced dead. She had been taken there by family.
Authorities have not released the victim’s name or address, but said both parents and two siblings were in the house at the time of the attack.
South Sioux City Police Chief Scot Ford said Sunday he believes the girl’s family and Melisio-Camacho’s family were friends in Mexico.
Ford said authorities have little information about Melisio-Camacho’s background. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been called in to determine his legal status.
The victim’s brother, just a few years older than she, was able to provide information that helped police locate the suspect quickly.
“The perp broke into the house, sexually assaulted the child by raping and sodomizing her and then the child was killed. We believe by suffocation,” Ford said.
Ford said the attacker apparently entered through a window that was malfunctioning so as to have made little noise. Police described the home as a small house with at least two bedrooms.
Her mother discovered the attack around 5 a.m., when she awoke to care for a months-old baby girl.
Ford said a police officer had stopped Melisio-Camacho near the home at 3:45 a.m. Saturday but let him go, unaware of the crime. That contact later helped police put the suspect in the area around when they believe the crime occurred, between 1 and 3:30 a.m.
Melisio-Camacho, who was living with several other men, is charged with first-degree murder, sexual assault and burglary.
Melisio-Camacho is being held in Woodbury County, Iowa.
Ford said he didn’t know of a motive for the crime.
“What kind of motive can you have for that kind of crime other than mental depravity, predatory activity?” Ford said.
http://journalstar.com/articles/2009/05/25/news/nebraska/doc4a19bca1445aa515509732.txt
