Ja’Naya Thompson, 5, was on her way to starting kindergarten this fall. In July, she vanished from her family’s apartment in Gulfport, Mississippi while playing on the patio. Hours later, Thompson’s mother, police and residents began searching for the young girl.
One man who participated in the search was Alberto Garcia, 31. Garcia lived in the apartment complex and pretended to search for her after a family member asked if he had seen her.
One day later, a tracking dog found Ja’Naya in an abandoned mobile home. She was hung with a sock around her neck and her body was only covered by a T-shirt.
Garcia was questioned by police and told them he broke into the mobile home days earlier and his fingerprints would be inside.
He was arrested for the burglary, but Garcia began to ask police strange questions about the investigation of Thompson. Garcia eventually began crying and told authorities another man, Julian Gray, knocked on his door and said he needed helped with a little girl.
Garcia said he followed Gray to the mobile home where he saw Thomson lying on the couch. He said his fingerprints would be on Thompson’s private parts. Garcia said gray used socks to hang Thompson on the bathroom window.
Garcia was arrested and the case has now gone to a grand jury. He has not been given a bond.
