RIVERDALE, MD. (THECOUNT) — Ariana Funes-Diaz of Adelphi, Maryland, has been identified as the teen found stabbed and beaten to death in a Riverdale Park creek on Wednesday morning.
Prince George’s County officials found the body of the 14-year-old girl after she had previously been reported as missing in Anne Arundel County, police said.
|
Advertisement |
Officers from several agencies found her body around 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday in a creek in the 6300 block of 64th Avenue.
Police arrested three teenagers in the case, 16-year-old Josue Fuentes-Ponce of Bladensburg, 17-year-old Joel Escobar of Northeast Washington, D.C., and 14-year-old Cynthia Hernandez-Nucamendi of Lothian, Md. All three are charged as adults, reports KENS5.
Officials said the suspects drove the victim to the wooded area in April, where they assaulted her with a machete and baseball bat. She died from her injuries.
The two male suspects are believed to be members of an MS-13 clique based out of Prince George’s County, police said.
“Consistently what we’ve seen when we deal with cases involving MS-13 is violence that’s disturbing,” Maj. Brian Riley said at the press conference. “And they’re not afraid to use it on their own, to send a message in some cases.”
The three suspects all face first degree murder charges.
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: Riverdale Park, formerly known and often referred to as Riverdale, Maryland is a semi-urban town in Prince George’s County, Maryland, United States, a suburb in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The population was 6,956 as of 2010 – Wikipedia.