New Orleans Louisiana Ahlittia North-6

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6-year-old vanishes from Louisiana apartment

Ahlittia North was last seen at home late Friday night

Mother says Ahlittia was gone when she woke up Saturday morning

Her blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste were also missing

Authorities and family members are appealing to the public for information regarding the disappearance of 6-year-old Ahlittia North, who reportedly went missing from her Louisiana home in the middle of the night.

According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, North’s mother told detectives she last saw the girl when she went to sleep in their Harvey apartment around 11 p.m. Friday. When she woke around 9 a.m. on Saturday, Ahlittia was gone.

Sheriff’s Office Colonel John Fortunato told HLN that the front door was open, there were no signs of forced entry and several of Ahlittia’s personal belongings—including her blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste—were missing.

“It caused us some concern at that point,” Fortunato said.

He said the girl’s stepfather and two other young children were also in the home at the time.

According to Fortunato, investigators have confirmed through surveillance video that the family left a nearby supermarket around 10:45 p.m. Friday.

“We’re not doubting what the parents are telling us,” he said, adding that family members have taken polygraph tests and “we have no reason to feel that they were deceptive.”

Authorities did an extensive search of a heavily-wooded area near the house and canvassed the neighborhood in all directions.

Fortunato said they would be expanding that canvass Monday, in addition to looking at local sex offenders and checking license place recognition cameras in the area.

“We’re just physically all over the map,” he said. Local investigators are getting assistance from state and federal agencies.

Fortunato said detectives are looking at all possibilities, including that Ahlittia may have wandered off on her own.

One thing he said was disconcerting is that investigators have received no tips in more than 48 hours since the girl’s disappearance.

“We have not received one tip that can lead us in a specific direction,” he said.

Family members are urging anyone with information to come forward.

"Anybody, anybody who knows anything, even the simplest thing, please call so we can try and get this mystery solved so she can be found," Ahlittia’s mother Lisa North told WWL.

"Anyone who has her, if you're not a God-fearing person, Christ-like person, don't hurt her cause she's only a child," Bernard Barnett, Ahlittia’s uncle, said to BayouBuzz.com.

In the meantime, investigators are using all resources and technology available to them.

“We’re just trying to find this one lead that will send us in the right direction,” Fortunato said Monday.

North was last seen wearing a gray tank top and pink pajama pants. She has braided black shoulder-length hair.

Crimestoppers announced Sunday that it is offering $2,500 for information leading to her return, and Fortunato said local officials have donated money to increase that reward to $4,500.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 504-364-5300 or Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111.


www.hlntv.com/article/2013/07/15/6-year-old-vanishes-louisiana-apartment

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Still no leads in search for missing 6-year-old Harvey girl

HARVEY, La. -- Since Saturday morning investigators have been canvassing a Harvey neighborhood for 6-year-old Ahlittia North, who vanished from her parent's home in the middle of the night.
Ahlittia appears to have vanished without a trace.

"This started at 9 a.m. (Saturday) morning, so it concerns us greatly that we haven't even received one tip," said Col. John Fortunato with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Now, as every minute passes by, her family is fearing the worst.
"I just hope she is alive and that somebody sees her and brings her home," said Lakeitha Felo.

Ahlittia's mother told police she put her daughter to bed at 11 p.m. Friday, but when she woke up Saturday morning, the front door was open and Ahlittia was gone.

Also missing from the home, the 6-year-old's blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste.

"That in itself caused us some concern because we had no signs of forced entry," Fortunato said.

Since then investigators have exhausted every resource.
"We have gone door to door to every one of this apartment complexes," Fortunato said. "We've checked garbage cans, we have gone to the next street over conducting canvasses of people in and around that area."

Other police agencies have been called in to help in the search, including members of the FBI.

So far investigators have focused their search a thick, wooded area just across the street from the girl's home. Deputies have also focused their attention on Max Drive, the street just behind the apartment complex.

Family members are also doing what they can, passing out fliers to people around the neighborhood. "Ya know people have been volunteering to look for her and pass out fliers which is real, real nice," said Felo.

Still, as deputies continue to look for clues, all Ahlittia's family can do is hope for her safe return.
Investigators say they are looking to North's parents for clues. The family claims North is not the type to wander off by herself and now fear it is possible someone close to the family may have taken her.

If you have any information on North's whereabouts, contact the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office at 504-364-5300.

www.wwltv.com/news/local/JPSO-Six-year-old-Harvey-girl-goes-missing-215376901.html

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video

Posted: Monday, July 15, 2013, 2:31 PM


Lisa North talks Monday about the disappearance of her daughter, Ahlittia North, 6, from their Harvey apartment on Saturday.

videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2013/07/lisa_north_talks_about_disappe.html

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Missing Harvey girl found dead in dumpster, mother says

Published On: Jul 16 2013 05:42:10 AM CDT
Updated On: Jul 16 2013 08:53:17 AM CDT

HARVEY, La. The body of a missing 6-year-old girl from Harvey was found, her mother told WDSU.

The mother of Ahlittia North told WDSU that Ahlittia was found dead in a dumpster around midnight near their Harvey apartment.

Images from the scene

The mother said the family is waiting for more details when an autopsy is performed.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office didn't immediately confirm the details from the family, but said that a 3 p.m. news conference would be held to update the public on the investigation.

The Sheriff’s Office said Monday that it was looking for a person of interest in connection with the disappearance of North.

The person of interest, 20-year-old Matthew Flugence, is a relative of hers, the Sheriff's Office said.

Col. John Fortunato with the Sheriff's Office said an arrest warrant was issued for Flugence, 20, in April in connection with the sexual battery of an 11-year-old in Harvey.

North was last seen at her Harvey home in the 2900 block of Destrehan Avenue on Friday at about 11 p.m.

Around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, the family discovered the child was missing, prompting a search by authorities, friends and family.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

m.wdsu.com/news/missing-harvey-girl-found-dead-in-dumpster-mother-says/-/17429724/20995258/-/10tc1tpz/-/index.html

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Investigators, residents gather near Harvey apartment where 6-year-old Ahlittia North's body discovered

A small memorial of teddy bears and candles is growing just feet from the area where Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputies discovered the body of 6-year-old Ahlittia North in a trash can in Harvey early Tuesday morning. Investigators have cordoned off a number of vacant apartment buildings in the 2900 block of Destrehan Boulevard just five units over from the residence where someone abducted the girl from her bed three days ago.

Ahlittia's mother, Lisa North, 20, confirmed that deputies found her daughter's body inside of a trash can near her apartment. Authorities contacted her and husband Albert Hill, 46, around 1 a.m. "I didn't think they were going to tell me she was dead," North said through tears.

The Sheriff's Office has not commented on the case. They won't provide any new details until a 10 a.m. press conference.

Destrehan Avenue neighbors said Sheriff's Office officials have been at the apartments since about 12:30 a.m., when the body was discovered. Investigators painted two fluorescent orange squares onto the grass between two driveways. Neighbors said it's the spot where the trash can that hid Ahlittia's body once sat.

Investigators taped off a block-long section of apartment buildings, including about three vacant buildings that appear to have been searched. As of 7 a.m., the Sheriff's Office had been joined by representatives from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Sheriff's Office Spokesman Col. John Fortunato said Monday that the investigators collected and searched all of the garbage cans new the apartments over the weekend, but turned up no evidence of Ahlittia. "They said whoever had her must have brought her back there," Hill said.

Neighbors suspect the culprit likely chose Tuesday morning because it's their residence's garbage pick-up day. Many said they were in shock about the tragic discovery of Ahlittia's body.

Resident Ayana Casimiar, 34, and her nephew, Reshawn Jones, 13, left teddy bears at the memorial near the apartment building. Casimiar said her children roused her shortly after midnight to tell her that deputies were massing outside. When she looked out, Sheriff's Office patrol vehicles lined the block.

"I got kids," she said, talking of the fears she and other residents have because Ahlittia's killer has not been caught. "It's kind of hard to accept."

www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/investigators_residents_gather.html

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JPSO captures suspect in murder of 6-year-old Ahlittia North

Matthew Flugence, sought by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in the murder of 6-year-old Ahlittia North, was captured Tuesday night, according to Sheriff Newell Normand.

A man fitting Flugence's description was spotted walking in the 800 block of Victory Drive and the West Bank Expressway in Westwego on Tuesday about 10 p.m., police said.

Flugence, 20, was taken into custody without incident. Police said at the time of his arrest he was carrying a knife.

Police said he will be booked with one count of first-degree murder, and will also will be booked on the outstanding warrant on a charge of sexual battery involving an 11-year old Harvey girl.

Flugence was found just hours after authorities confirmed at a press conference they were working to obtain a first-degree murder arrest warrant for the nephew of Ahlittia's stepfather.

Investigators arrested Flugence's brother, Russell Flugence, 21, on Monday and booked him with obstruction of justice in the case.

Law enforcement officers spent three days searching for Ahlittia, only to find her decomposing body wrapped in her brown and plaid comforter and stuffed into a green trash bin just feet from the Harvey apartment where she lived.


Authorities revealed that the little girl was stabbed to death. The fatal injuries were two deep cuts on the side of her neck, according to Jefferson Parish coroner Gerry Cvitanovich. The wounds went through the cartilage in her spine to the bone. "That's a very aggressive stab wound," he said.

Ahlittia's mother, Lisa North, 20, said she was shocked to learn that her husband's nephew is suspected in her daughter's death. Matthew Flugence had frequently babysat for Ahlittia and often stayed with North and her husband, Albert Hill, 46.

"I don't understand the reason," she said Tuesday evening. "To say, 'I'm just going to kill your daughter?' I don't understand."

Shocking developments

North and Hill reported Ahlittia missing Saturday morning from their two-story apartment in a fourplex in the 2900 block of Destrehan Avenue in Harvey's Woodmere subdivision. The family last saw the child asleep in her bed around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. But when they awoke the next morning around 9 a.m., Ahlittia was missing, along with the brown and plaid comforter, a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Normand said deputies who canvassed the neighborhood searched in and around the nearby stretch of apartment buildings along Destrehan Avenue. During that search, they found a 2- by 3-foot pool of blood behind a building at 2836 Destrehan Ave.


Investigators collected the blood as well as samples from Ahlittia's relatives and began the process of DNA testing. Deputies continued searching the neighborhood, including the garbage bins near the family's apartment building.

Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, has said investigators used a "clean" garbage truck provided by IESI, Jefferson Parish's garbage contractor, to collect refuse from the bins. Detectives, clad in protective suits and gloves, carefully sifted through all of the refuse on Saturday. The searches of the nearby apartments and garbage bins turned up no evidence of the little girl, Normand said.


By Monday evening, investigators expanded their already massive search to the Woodmere subdivision, Jefferson Parish's largest neighborhood. Investigators also released photos of Matthew Flugence and named him as a person of interest in the case


Missing 6 year-old in Harvey found dead; Residents set up a memorial

A missing six-year-old girl, Ahlittia North, was found early Tuesday morning dead inside a trash bin near her home in Harvey. Residents in the Woodmere subdivision set up a memorial in front her family's apartment, placing stuffed stuffed animals to give their condolences.

Normand said detectives discovered Flugence's connection to the family as well as an outstanding arrest warrant on a charge of sexual battery of an 11-year-old Harvey girl. That case is not related to Ahlittia's death, authorities said, but officers wanted to talk with him to see if he had any relevant information
Detectives got a gut-twisting break in the case Monday night when they received the results of the DNA testing. "Last night at 10:30 p.m. was the first time we knew for sure that the blood that was located at the scene seven doors from their residence was actually the blood of Ahlittia," Normand said.

About two hours later, a detective again searching the garbage bins in the 2800 block of Destrehan Avenue noticed a pink-stained 2- by 4-foot block of lumber that hadn't been there before, Normand said. They found Ahlittia wrapped in a garbage bag inside the bin, clad in the same gray tank top and pink pajama bottoms that she had been wearing when she went to bed Friday night.

Deputies contacted the child's mother around 1 a.m. "They could have brought her back home, but they killed her and put her in a trash can," North sobbed, just a few hours after she learned of her daughter's death.

Later that morning, she said, "I just knew I was going to go down there, and they were going to bring her out. We would have to take her to the hospital. I didn't think they were going to tell me she was dead."

Detectives took Russell Flugence, of 5029 Rue Racine, Marrero, into custody shortly after the discovery of Ahlittia's body. On Tuesday evening, the Sheriff's Office had not yet found Matthew Flugence.

Unanswered questions

While investigators know what ultimately happened to Ahlittia and have identified a suspect in her death, Normand said there are still many unanswered questions. "At what point was the body disposed of in the garbage can?" he asked.

Authorities say Ahlittia's body was slightly decomposed. But they do not yet know how long she was dead before her body was found. "We know as a result of multiple interviews that Matthew Flugence was in and around those crime scenes multiple times Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Normand said Tuesday.

Investigators also want to know where the child's killer hid her body during the extensive three-day search of the neighborhood. Cvitanovich said her wounds could have caused the pool of blood found behind the apartment, but it would depend on how quickly she was killed and her body was moved.


Grandmother talks about the death of her granddaughter
Rena Johnson, the grandmother of six-year-old Ahlittia North, talks about how her daughter, Lisa, the mother of North, is coping and how the family is ready to move away after the gruesome murder.

As investigators sought to answer those questions Tuesday night, neighbors continued to contribute teddy bears, dolls and other toys to the growing memorial near where Ahlittia's body was found. Hundreds of people gathered at an evening vigil in the neighborhood.

Relatives recalled Ahlittia as a fun, spirited, chatty girl who loved Barney the purple dinosaur and was always doing something to make others laugh. "She loved to dance and sing," said North, who noted that Ahlittia had recently joined The Purple Diamonds dance team in Marrero.

North's mother, Rena Johnson, 38, said her daughter has been hysterical with grief. "It's tearing her apart," said Johnson, who called Ahlittia the reason she got up in the morning.

But Johnson said she has counseled North not to blame herself and to be grateful that Ahlittia is not still missing. "Thank God she was found," Johnson said. "You don't like how she was found, but thank God she was."

www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/jpso_has_suspect_in_custody_in.html

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Ahlittia North Update: Matthew Flugence confesses to La. girl's stabbing death, sheriff says

CBS/AP) NEW ORLEANS - A suspect in the stabbing death of a 6-year-old girl whose body was found in a trash can only days after she disappeared from a suburban New Orleans apartment has confessed to the killing, a sheriff said Wednesday.

Matthew Flugence, 20, was captured Tuesday night after authorities received tips he had been sighted, said Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand. Flugence was booked on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Ahlittia North.

"We began interviewing Matthew through the evening and he admitted to the murder of Ahlittia North," Normand said at a news conference.

The 6-year-old had been put to bed Friday night and was found missing early Saturday from an apartment where she lived with her mother and stepfather in the Jefferson Parish community of Harvey, near New Orleans.

An intense search, including canvassing of hundreds of apartments, began soon after the girl was reported missing and a pool of blood was subsequently found outside nearby apartments. When DNA testing revealed it to be that of the missing girl, the search was stepped up in that area late Monday.

Normand has said the child's body, which had multiple stab wounds, was found around midnight Monday in a trash can that had already been searched once.

On Wednesday, Normand declined to answer when asked where the body had been kept from the time the girl was killed, believed to be early Saturday, and the time it was found.

Normand said Flugence was carrying a knife when he was arrested and that he later identified it as the murder weapon.

Flugence's brother, Russell Flugence, 21, had been arrested a day earlier on an obstruction of justice charge for allegedly withholding information in the case.

Normand said numerous loose ends remain, including determining whether anyone else may have helped Matthew Flugence or harbored him.

The girl disappeared some time after her parents put her to bed late Friday. A blanket and the girl's toothbrush also were gone. There was no sign of forced entry at the apartment, Normand said.

"His story is that she was outside of the apartment in the very early morning hours of Saturday," Normand said.

As the search for Matthew Flugence was getting underway, deputies said they also had obtained a warrant against him for an unrelated sexual battery case involving an 11-year-old child earlier in the year.

The sheriff said Matthew Flugence was a neighbor and nephew of Ahlittia North's stepfather and had babysat the girl in the past. There was no indication the mother or stepfather knew of the alleged sexual battery incident, Normand said.

As the investigation continued, friends and neighbors gathered for vigils Tuesday and Wednesday at the site where the body was found. Children and adults placed teddy bears and other stuffed animals at a makeshift memorial that continued to grow.

www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57594218-504083/ahlittia-north-update-matthew-flugence-confesses-to-la-girls-stabbing-death-sheriff-says/