Missing Girl Found Dead In Alley

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 1, 2009 3:20PM

A tragic story broke last night as the body of 12-year-old Jahmeshia Conner, missing for two weeks, was found in a South Side alley last night. According to the Tribune, the body was found in an alley on the 6400 block of South Marshfield and while the Cook County Medical Examiner's office hasn't officially identified the body, family members told the Trib they identified photographs of the body as Jahmeshia. Birdie Lewis, the girl's mother, told the Tribune, "Her face was bashed in. And there was blood and scratches over her face. Why would they do that to her? That's a baby." According to the Trib's timeline:

After spending Nov. 15 with relatives at church and singing karaoke songs with her cousins, family members walked Jahmeshia to the bus at 63rd and Aberdeen streets. Her aunt says she watched from across the street as the fifth-grader boarded a bus headed toward her home in the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue.

She had less than a mile to travel, but family members say she never made it home, and now they are in anguish, replaying those last hours.

A miscommunication between family members led to an initial delay in reporting Jahmeshia's disappearance to the police; her mother thought the girl had spent the night with an aunt. Investigators currently believe Jahmeshia's body wasn't in the alley for more than two days. It was found in a section of the alley behind and abandoned home and a vacant lot, according to the Trib, a place one neighbor called, "a blind spot." An autopsy will be conducted today which investigators hope will give them more information.