8-year-old California girl stabbed to death
April 29, 2013
Leila Fowler
An attacker stabbed an 8-year-old girl to death inside her home in the Sierra Nevada foothills Saturday. [USA Today]
Leila Fowler, of Valley Springs, California, died in a local hospital after her 12-year-old brother found her stabbed inside their Calaveras County home.
Fowler’s brother spotted the attacker inside their house, but the intruder fled and is still at large.
The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office is teaming up with surrounding sheriffs and police departments, as well as the California Highway Patrol, to conduct a manhunt for the killer. Deputies have already conducted house-to-house searches, including sheds and attics, for the suspect described as a 6-foot, muscular, white or Latino male, with long, graying hair.
A SWAT team is also going door-to-door in the Valley Springs area and telling residents to stay inside.
“It was nerve-wracking,” 35-year-old Roger Ballew said after the SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night. “I didn’t sleep well.”
Investigators interviewed several people Sunday, but did not name any suspects.
Valley Springs is an unincorporated area of about 2,500 people approximately 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.
“It’s a difficult area to search, it’s rural, remote,” Calaveras County Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Macedo said.
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