BALTIMORE — Homicide Update: Adonay Dixon and John Childs have been arrested for the murder of 16 year old Arnesha Bowers.
Police and Fire officials found a 16-year-old girl inside of a burning home in Northeast Baltimore Sunday morning. The scene is at the 6100 block of Eastern Parkway.
The girl has been identified as Arnesha Bowers, a Baltimore City College High School student.
She was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the fire was knocked down.
The victim’s body was located in the basement. She had been restrained, sexually assaulted and strangled with an electric cord, WJZ is reporting.
Asphyxiation was determined the cause of death.
Investigators have two suspects… They are identified as 23-year-old Adonay Dixon and John Childs, 20.
The Baltimore Police are expected to make an announcement in the case Thursday afternoon.
Anyone with information is asked to call 410-396-2100.
There have been 116 homicides in Baltimore in 2015. By this time last year, homicides hadn’t hit triple digits. As homicides rose in May, the number of arrests plummeted. Some attribute the drop to increased scrutiny of police following the April death of Freddie Gray from injuries received in police custody.
In Baltimore, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts wrote a letter to community leaders Monday, acknowledging the disintegrating relationship between police and the community. He said the police would move “aggressively” to address the violence.
Baltimore, he wrote, is “in the midst of a challenging time. Following a period of civil unrest, we have been experiencing an increase of the pace of violent crime, most notably homicides and shootings.”
Batts told the Baltimore Sun last week that police have struggled to stop burgeoning violence since the death of Gray, 25, on April 19 set off days of protests in West Baltimore and prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to put the city under a five-day curfew. Gray died a week after police arrested him from injuries he received while in police custody. On May 21, a grand jury indicted six police officers in Gray’s death.
Photo source: WJZ
