Hemet investigators hope interview with girl will shed light on missing-teens case
Felicia Sharpe told investigators she had spent time with her mother and was afraid to tell her father.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A 17-year-old missing Hemet girl is being interviewed by investigators in hopes she may shed light on the disappearance of two other teens and the discovery of human remains at the home where one of the youths lived.
Felicia Sharpe told investigators she had spent time with her mother and was afraid to tell her father where she was while family, friends and police searched for her, said Hemet Lt. Dean Evans, during an afternoon news conference outside the Hemet home where some human remains were discovered.
Evans said he had little information about Felicia’s whereabouts over the past week because her identity had only been verified 30 minutes before the 2 p.m. news conference. Investigators had just started talking to the Hemet girl when Evans began the news conference.
“We know very little at this point,” said Evans, who added that Felicia’s parents were estranged and that could explain why the girl might be reluctant to tell her father her whereabouts.
Evans said additional human remains were found during an excavation of the Bluejay Way home, but the evidence would need to be analyzed before investigators can determine its significance, Evans said.
He said police do not know whether the remains are of one, two or more people.
Investigator and evidence technicians spent the morning and afternoon combing the home and backyard where police found some human remains last week while looking into a missing-persons report on 17-year-old Jose Campos. Adrian Rios, 17, and Sharpe, were also reporting missing at the time.
The fragments were analyzed by a forensic pathologist and determined to be human, Evans said. He described the remains as fragments, some which were charred and found in a makeshift grave. There is evidence that a fire had burned in the backyard, Evans said.
Investigators returned to the home Tuesday evening with a search warrant and began looking for more evidence. Early this morning investigators began digging in the backyard of the home and found what they described as a makeshift grave, Evans said.
At this point, he said, “it is unclear whether the human remains have any connection to the three missing juveniles.” Evans said it is too early to say how long the remains have been in the backyard, but added it appears it was days or weeks, not months.
“The dirt was soft and the grave was not very deep,” he said. “We are not talking about some ancient burial ground.”
The home is located in a normally quiet neighborhood near West Valley High School along the city’s southern end. Harmony Elementary School is located behind the Bluejay Way home. During the morning and afternoon, police tape sealed off the street in front of the home and several news vans were parked along the street. Several neighbors and passerbys gathered in small groups talking amongst themselves.
Evans said the Campos family had been renting the home for two months and he did not believe the residence was a problem with officers.
Neighbor Pam Miller, who lives next-door to the Campos home, said she and her husband had an incident with the two missing teens a week or so ago. They had been sprayed by pepper spray, Miller said, and they ended up on her property. The boys would not explain how they got sprayed or who did it, she said.
“This is creepy,” said Miller, who has lived in the neighborhood for years. “It’s hard to imagine something like this happening here.”
Miller said the neighborhood is quiet for the most part, except for the occasional skate-boarding teen or music. She said the Campos family did not bother her, although she did recall a backyard fire about two weeks ago. She said there was nothing suspicious about the fire.
Evans said investigators are still looking for the two boys and have no way of knowing whether their disappearance is connected to the remains.
Tags: dean evans, Felicia Sharpe, hemet police, Jose Campos, SWRNN, west valley high schooll
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