Watch CBS News

13-year-old girl found slain in Calif. baseball dugout

Jessica Funk-Haslam, 13 CBS Sacramento

(CBS/AP) ROSEMONT, Calif. - New details have emerged in the case of a 13-year-old girl found slain in a baseball dugout at a community park in California.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office says Jessica Funk-Haslam's body was discovered March 6 at Rosemont Community Park near the middle school she attended. She had suffered blunt force head trauma, asphyxia and a stab wound to the neck.

CBS Sacramento reports Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies have released grainy surveillance video in the hopes of sparking new clues in case.

The video, recorded between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on March 5, was captured by a camera mounted on a house about 150 yards away from park. In the video, a person in dark clothing can be seen running east from the area of the park where the teenager's body was found. When the person sees cars coming, he or she appears to attempt to hide. Once the cars pass, the figure runs down the street and out of range.

Jessica's mother, Tara, says she and her daughter fought the previous night and Jessica left the apartment. The girl wanted to meet someone she would not identify, but the mother did not want her to go out after dark. Her body was discovered the next morning. Detectives have yet to identify who the girl wanted to meet.

Detectives do not believe the person in the video is a suspect but would like to identify the person to determine if he or she has any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the case.

With this video, detectives have been able to narrow the window of time in which they believe Jessica was killed. They also hope it will jog the memories of individuals who were in the area at that time.

Police believe Jessica knew the person who took her life.

"We think she was there with, at least for some period of time, someone she knew or at least someone she was comfortable with," said Sacramento County Sheriff's Detective Tony Turnbull during a Thursday press conference updating the case.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.