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Bedford Teen's Death Ruled A Homicide

BEDFORD (CBSDFW.COM) - The Tarrant County Medical Examiner has ruled 14-year-old Kaytlynn Cargill's death as a homicide.

The ME's Office didn't release how she died.

Bedford Police released a statement saying that they wouldn't be taking any questions, as the investigation is still active.

They did say in the statement that the public is not in any danger, despite a suspect not being in custody.

"We are aware that this ruling may raise concerns with the public for their safety.  The Bedford Police Department would like to reassure the public, based on the information we have at this time, there is no threat to the public."

Thursday evening, the public, in the form of neighbors reacted to the news.

"Everybody who is living here should have some kind of concern and everybody should wait for the result to see what happened exactly to see if it is related to someone living around here," said Elwathig Hemet

Ashley Ogden added, "If I have to go outside at night, I go with my husband instead of going by myself. Pretty much just staying in after dark."

Cargill disappeared in June after leaving her home at the Oak Creek Apartments to take her dog for a walk.

At the time, Bedford police said they were treating her case as a "missing runaway."

Two days later, Cargill's body was found at an Arlington landfill, 15 minutes away from her home.

Bedford Police Chief Jeff Gibson detailed how the investigation began at a press conference back in June. He said -- on Monday (June 19)-- night officers responded to a missing person call, initiated a report, and later entered Kaytlynn's information -- into both local and national databases -- as a missing child.

At that time, Gibson said officers had no indication that the teen had been abducted or was in danger. "Some of the comments shared by the stepfather was they felt like Kaytlynn may possibly be playing at a friend's house," he said.

On Tuesday, June 20, Bedford police initiated a "child is missing alert" – which sends an automated phone call to the community. They also sent out a community message alert and posted missing bulletins of Kaytlynn on their social media sites.

Chief Gibson also addressed the fact that an Amber Alert was not issued and again said it didn't happen because Kaytlynn's case did not meet the criteria necessary to issue the child abduction emergency.

It was on Wednesday the 21st when Bedford police were contacted by Arlington police in reference to body found at a landfill in their city. Chief Gibson said, "Arlington Police Department notified our agency because they were aware of our missing child alert and the body that they had found shared some similar characteristics."

Responding to complaints about the handling of the investigation the Chief said, "In review of this tragic situation, I completed a review of all the actions performed by law enforcement personnel since we were notified on this incident on Monday evening. This was in an effort to determine if there was anything that we could have possibly done differently as a police department. What I found is that our employees performed exceptionally well. There is nothing that we could have done differently."

Friends have set up a GoFundMe page for anyone wanting to help the Cargill family.

 

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