Police Still Looking For Jessica Funk-Haslam’s Killer

[Whisper]

Young girl's body found at Rosemont Community Park is identified
ROSEMONT, CA - The mother of an eighth grader found dead at a Rosemont park Tuesday morning said those behind her daughter's death may involve "at least one girlfriend."
The victim, 13-year-old Jessica Funk-Haslam, was discovered by a woman walking in Rosemont Community Park about 6:30 a.m. The body was in the dugout of a softball field.
Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos said the victim was last seen by her family about 5:30 a.m. Monday. Homicide detectives were working to determine Funk-Haslam's whereabouts between then and when she was found.

Funk-Haslam's mother said she had some "strong ideas" about what happened, but "it's hard to speculate."
"I know she's a teenager, she wants to be her age," the girl's mother said. "Being a parent, I wanted to ease her into the world."
Funk-Haslam's mother added she believed neither gangs nor drugs were a factor.

A teenage boy Funk-Haslam was dating for a week said Funk-Haslam had hung out with the wrong crowd and had cut class.
Monday night, Funk-Haslam's father Allen Porter said he spoke to his daughter by phone at around 6 p.m. Monday. Porter said Funk-Haslam was arguing with her mother that night.
"She wanted to move here and I was trying to set it up so she could," Porter said.

He was devastated by the news of his daughter's death.
"I don't know why anybody would do this. I really don't I just want to know why," Porter said. "She was a wonderful kid. She loved to laugh, loved to smile."

Funk-Haslam's body showed signs of trauma, but Ramos did not speculate on a cause of death.
A Sacramento Police Department school resource officer went to nearby Albert Einstein Middle School to check attendance records and make sure the school had accounted for all absent students. Funk-Haslam was a student, confirmed Gabe Ross, Sacramento City Unified School District spokesman.
The district released this statement:
We are saddened and deeply troubled by the loss of a promising young student. We continue to assist the Sheriff's Office with their investigation and to provide support to the Albert Einstein school community as they struggle to cope with this horrific news. School officials are communicating information about this tragedy to families and staff via automated phone calls. Crisis counselors will be dispatched to the campus first thing tomorrow morning. Our hearts go out to this child's family and friends in their time of grief.

It wasn't clear if the girl's family had reported her as missing.
A witness, who did not want to be identified, said they saw two people near the park Monday night, sometime between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. The witness said the people were wearing dark clothes and had a flashlight. They sat on the bleachers between the park and school, the witness said. They parked a vehicle in a parking lot near the school.

Detectives did not comment on the witness's account.
Anyone with information on Funk-Haslam's actions between 5:30 p.m. Monday and 6:30 a.m. Tuesday was urged to contact the sheriff's department at (916) 874-5115, Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP, or send a text message tip to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter SACTIP followed by the tip information.
[...]

http://www.news10.net/news/article/1...-is-identified

Jessica Funk-Haslam

update
Coroner releases cause of death of girl found in Rosemont park

ROSEMONT, CA - The Sacramento County coroner released the cause of death of a 13-year-old girl who was found dead in a Rosemont Park Tuesday morning.

Jessica Funk-Haslam was found by a passerby in the dugout of a baseball diamond on the 9300 block of Americana Way, Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos said.
The coroner's report Wednesday said Funk-Haslam suffered blunt force trauma to the head, a stab wound and asphyxiation.

Ramos said Funk-Haslam was last seen by her family Monday around 5:30 p.m. at her home wearing a fur-lined hooded jacket.

Deputies need help figuring out Funk-Haslam's whereabouts from 5:30 p.m. Monday to 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
[..]

http://www.news10.net/news/article/1...s%7Cbc%7Clarge

[Mommyof2]

My youngest is the same age and grade as this girl. That said if my daughter didn't come straight home from school I would be out bringing her ass home. I know if my daughter is even a few minutes late I start to flip out. I really hope that info is wrong and the parents at least reported her missing!

Cases like this break my heart. I know my girls are young and ready to explore the world. At the same time I try and keep a close eye on them because they are not wise to the evils of this world. Sure I warn them all the time but I know what being a teen is like. They think they are invincible. It is so sad it had to end like this for this young girl. All I can hope now is they find the killer/s.

[AngelFire]

OMG She still had the pudgy baby face...not fully a teen yet. So sad

[Crazy_n_NC]

Spmethin about the article makes me think mom for some reason.... too early i know but its sketchy

[cubby]

Sounds tome like Mom and daughter were arguing and 13 year od Jessica wanted to go live with Dad. That and the fact that she was not reported missing, makes me think that Mom might be involved in this. I really hope it's just my cynicism showing. I guess it's getting harder to see the good in anybody anymore.

[Whisper]

Spmethin about the article makes me think mom for some reason.... too early i know but its sketchy

me too when I read about dads

[AngelFire]

cubby that was my first thought. Mom gives me the willies. But I could be wrong

[Crazy_n_NC]

I stroked out over my daughter not coming home after getting off the bus and going to our next door neighbor 2st we had to call the cops and the school and had everyone looking for her..... and they dont notice yeah right

[cubby]

When I read that she was strangled, and Mom did not report her misssing and then she was wrangling to go live with Dad, I could see her mother getting mad with her, hitting at her with something and grabbing her around the neck when the daughter went down, Mom being so mad she didn't realize she had killed her until the girl stopped fighting back. This made me immediately think of Cindy Anthony and what she should have finished that night and saved all of us a bunch aggravation.

[Chinchillazilla]

Mom and daughter were arguing, girl wanted to go live wih Dad, and now Mom is pointing fingers at other kids? Yeah, I'm thinking Mom did it.

[cubby]

Mom and daughter were arguing, girl wanted to go live wih Dad, and now Mom is pointing fingers at other kids? Yeah, I'm thinking Mom did it.

Great minds think alike and we all can't be wrong.

I can identify with the rage built up over the mouth and attitude of a 13 year old, been there done that got several t-shirts. But my 13 year olds were boys, boys can be bad but I think girls are worst. But, of course, that is just my observation. I remember my own 13 year old self and don't know how I made it thru teenage hood.

I certainly remember once when I was mad enough at my son to wanna beat the crap out of him, but I didn't, but I did slap the taste out of his mouth. So I can see Mama doing this. Most certainly I can hear Jessica mouthy, I'll just go live with DAD, he'll let me do whatever I wanna do, you can't tell me what to do anymore!!!! I HATE YOU!!!!!!

I understand being rageful, I just don't understand going thru with it. Especially not covering up and blaming on other KIDS.

[Shadow]

My husband gave me a heads up about this one.. My daughter used to rent a room in a house in this neighborhood and it is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER from us. It breaks my heart that this happened to her. No matter what she did, death wasn't deserving..... :(



~shadow

[melissa222]

I agree mom sounds real fishy, but also I know that teenage girls with parent problems are easy "victims" to the older crowd who "knows how it is".... the main problem I have with mom is not reporting this CHILD and then saying "she has some idea but it is hard to speculate" WTF!!!!! IF that were my child I would be spastic or in so much shock I couldn't speak at all or hyperventilating, who knows, but I am pretty sure i wouldn't be making such flippant comments....

[Whisper]

Who killed Jessica? Body of girl, 13, found dumped in baseball dugout after she was battered, stabbed and throttled to deathJessica Funk-Haslam last seen leaving her house at night following argument with her mother
Mother: Daughter's death may have involved 'at least one girlfriend'
Witness saw male and a young girl near dugout on night she was killed
Ex-boyfriend: Jessica had been hanging out with the wrong crowd

13-year-old girl was stabbed, beaten and strangled before her body was dumped in a baseball dugout, it emerged today.

Jessica Funk-Haslam was found by a passer-by at the Rosemont Community Park in Sacramento on Tuesday.
She had suffered blunt force trauma to her head, a stab wound and was asphyxiated, according to a coroner's report.
Jessica, an eighth-grader at nearby Albert Einstein Middle School, was last seen around 5.30pm the previous evening when she left her home to meet someone following an argument with her mother.
She was still wearing the zebra-striped jacket she went out in when she was discovered.
According to one witness, two people were seen near the park between 11pm and 12.30am on the night she disappeared.

They had parked a vehicle in a parking lot near Jessica's school and then sat on bleachers nearby, according to www.news10.net.
Another witness, Justin Gray, who lives near Rosemont Park, says he heard a male and a young girl talking there at around 2.30am on Tuesday morning, but couldn't make out anyone in the dark.
A teenage boy who had been dating Jessica said she had been hanging out with the wrong crowd and skipped school
Jessica's mother, Tara Funk-Haslam, believes her daughter's death may have involved 'at least one girlfriend.'
'She was wanting to go out and see somebody. She wouldn’t tell me who,' she told CBS13.

'I had tried to keep her home too much. I didn’t want her to go out at night.'
She had some 'strong ideas' about her daughter's demise, but didn't want to speculate, she added.
But she believed neither gangs nor drugs were a factor.

Jessica's father, Allen Porter, said he spoke to his daughter on the phone about 6pm on Monday - half an hour after the argument with her mother.
'She wanted to move here and I was trying to set it up so she could,' he told www.news10.net.
He added: 'I don't know why anybody would do this. I just want to know why.

'She was a wonderful kid. She loved to laugh, loved to smile.'
Investigators have been questioning Jessica's friends, family and classmates as they try to piece together her final hours.
Yesterday, her mother, friends and families who played in the park held a candlelit vigil close to where the teenager was found.
That was followed by a community meeting hosted by Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt Jim Barnes at Atonement Lutheran Church.

Kiersten Brown, a close friend of Jessica’s told CBS13 how she could 'make anyone laugh and smile in the worst of times'.
'It’s definitely going to be different without her, but we’ll get through, I know we will,' she said.
A statement from Sacramento City Unified School District said: 'We are saddened and deeply troubled by the loss of a promising young student.
'We continue to assist the Sheriff's Office with their investigation and to provide support to the Albert Einstein school community as they struggle to cope with this horrific news.
[...]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1oXwWdNdV

Macabre discovery: The 13-year-old's body was found in this baseball shelter at the Rosemont Community Park in Sacramento

Tributes: Friends and relatives held a candlelight vigil in memory of Jessica yesterday

Grieving: Jessica's mother Tara and father Allen Porter desperately wants answers

[sugarfree irony]

I know they are both crying in the videos . I know people react differently to stress . But the dad just seems more genuine to me . Her friends seem so shaken in the video about the vigil .

[Morbid]

SACRAMENTO, CA -*I wasn’t going to post about the murder of 13-year-old*Jessica Funk-Haslam, especially*since Nancy Grace and a couple of silly “psychics” are on the case and will have this solved in no time, but when I saw Google considers an*opinionated*Gather article a news source, I died a little inside and figured I would put up my own article. I know a lot of you have already heard about the murder of 13-year-old*Jessica Funk-Haslam, but for those of you who haven’t, her body was found in a*dugout of a baseball field**last Tuesday morning. She had been strangled, stabbed and beaten. The last person known to have seen her alive was her mother, Tara Funk-Haslam, who says her daughter ran out of the house to meet someone after an argument. She says she chased after her but was unable to catch her. Armchair detectives are already fingering her as the prime suspect, speculating as to why her mother waited until the next morning to call police, or why she didn’t try to contact her friends or her father, Allen Porter. Porter says his daughter has a history of running away, having been reported missing in January only to call her parents later from an apartment complex. She wouldn’t tell her parents who she was visiting. Porter, who says he has been trying to get custody of his daughter, said she also disappeared the weekend before her murder. He believes the reason why Jessica has become so angry and rebellious is because she was sexually abused by Bryan Kirk, one of her mother’s past boyfriends, who is currently serving a*10 year prison sentence for lewdness with a child under the age of fourteen. The Sacramento County Coroner said Jessica’s cause of death was a combination of asphyxia, a stab wound to the neck and blunt force trauma to the head. Police say they have found no murder weapons where her body was found, although two*psychics*almost busted the case wide open when they found a piece of tape with the words “Skittles was here” underneath a table at the park. lol.
This article is from The Dreamin' Demon, the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.


More...

[Chinchillazilla]

Just updating this with the article Morbid linked to on the front page.

http://www.news10.net/news/article/1...ens-body-found

SACRAMENTO, CA - In an interview with CNN's legal analyst Nancy Grace, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said on Monday there was no strangling instrument or baseball bats recovered at the scene where Jessica Funk-Haslam's body was found.

[...]The sheriff's department has not named a suspect or person of interest in the teen's murder.

The Sacramento County Coroner said Funk-Haslam's cause of death was a combination of asphyxia, a stab wound to the neck and blunt force trauma to the head.

The park is about two miles from the Windsor Ridge apartment complex where Jessica lived with her mother. Tara Funk-Haslam said her daughter ran away last Monday evening after an argument; she said the teen wanted to meet someone.

"She ran out the front door and I chased her," Tara Funk-Haslam said.

Funk-Haslam said she called the police on Tuesday morning before learning of any reports about a body found at Rosemont Community Park.

"It was scary after things were falling all in a row, I guess," Funk-Haslam said. "I did not even have a thought that it would be her. I was holding the thought, hoping it wasn't," said Funk-Haslam, who said she learned about the investigation after getting an automated phone call from the school district.

[...]

When asked if she had any communication with her daughter after she ran away Monday evening, Funk-Haslam said, "[Jessica] had voluntarily left her phone here so I was not able to, and I did not know where some of the friends, that had contacted me (Tuesday) night, I didn't know where their houses were so I wasn't able to go to them."

"Why didn't Tara call me when she left the house? Why would somebody do that to Jessica? She was such a nice person," Jessica's father Allen Porter said.

Jessica was an eighth grader at Albert Einstein Middle School. The school is located nearly 200 yards from the baseball field where the teen's body was found.

"I don't think she was walking through that park," Porter said. "I think she got picked up somewhere on Folsom Boulevard because Jessica did not like to walk that far. When we were hiking, when we were camping, she'd be complaining after half a mile."

Jessica spent her childhood in Sacramento and Nevada. While in Washoe County, Porter said his daughter was sexually abused by her mother's then boyfriend, Bryan Kirk.

Porter received a letter from the Washoe County District Attorney's office in March 2008 informing him that he may be contacted by parole and probation to assist in their presentence investigation for Bryan Kirk that was scheduled for May 2008.

According to the Lovelock Correctional Center, Kirk is serving a 10 year prison sentence for lewdness with a child under the age of fourteen.

"That's been done and over with and passed," Funk-Haslam said. "People are probably going to think a lot of that but she was getting help with that and people were not to pressure her because that was the past."

Porter, however, believes the sexual abuse explains Jessica's rebellion and anger as a teen. Jessica was reported missing in January and later called her parents from an apartment complex near Watt Avenue. She wouldn't tell her parents who she was visiting, Porter said.

Jessica also disappeared the weekend before her murder, according to Porter.

"If a kid's got a history of running away - habitual runaway- maybe you ought to get them out of that house because there's something making them runaway," Porter said.

Porter said he and Jessica's mother never married; they split legal custody and Jessica's mother had physical custody. Porter said he was taking efforts to get custody of his daughter.

"I called my lawyer and was trying to get it all set-up, but was meeting a lot of resistance," Porter said.

[...]

Personally, I think this will shake out to be something like "She stole mah man/got mah man put in prison!" I'd like to think I'm wrong, but I swear, literally every time this mom talks I get the heebie-jeebies.

[golanvern]

I am desperately going to try not to burn off any calories by jumping to any conclusions regarding any parental involvement in this one.

Especially after the recent recovery of Mariam Makniashvili up here in Canada in which the family has now been shown to have been truthful from the get-go despite how it 'looked'.

Doubly more so after reading through the `first 8 pages of the Tori Stafford thread today. That family laughed and joked (and therefore raised suspicions it was them), mom resembled the composite (and raised suspicions she was involved), lived only 3 doors away from the perps (which was not true at all as it turned out), had a clandestine meeting with a rich dude in a hotel after a suspicious limo showed up (which turned out to be absolutely true), was involved in drugs, etc etc etc. 8 pages of hinkyness on mom and her involvement. If that case doesn't break every stereotype of what an "innocent/not involved person" would do or would not do, or how they "should react to a situation "ìf"they were innocent, I don't know what ever will.


In this case, mom and dad both say there was a fight between mom and daughter the evening she disappeared. Dad says he was trying to arrange for daughter to come live with him and spoke with her that evening because of the fight. Mom also said she had an inkling that a friend of the daughter's might somehow be involved. I'm wondering if that's because daughter left the house to go see/stay with that friend overnight after the fight (with mom and dad's knowledge) and that when mom couldn't contact daughter with friend the next morning (as in "well, she never showed up here at my house"), mom then called her in missing.

To me, it's plausible.

Whoever it was, I hope he/she (I actually am thinking it's a "gang up on one" thing what with three manners of attack being used - strangulation, stabbing and blunt force trauma!!??) fries. If it is the gang-up on one scenario, someone will talk ... eventually.

[Whisper]

Screams Heard in Park Where Girl Was Murdered

ROSEMONT, Calif. -- Detectives say a girl found beaten and stabbed last week spent a several hours in Rosemont Park before she was killed.

They also say people heard screams in the park before her death.

During a press conference Thursday afternoon, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department released new information about their investigation into the death of Jessica Funk-Haslam and some surveillance video.
[...]
Officials brought in criminalists to help analysis the evidence gathered at Rosemont Park to narrow down the suspect search.

Investigators say once Jessica left her house after an argument with her mother that Monday night, she boarded at least two light rail trains, then transferred to a bus and got off at Rosemont Park.

She attends Albert Einstein Middle School, which is adjacent to the park.

They believe she got to the park around 6:30 p.m., and that she spent the next few hours with someone that she knew.

She was killed between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and investigators say she was killed where her body was found the following morning near the baseball dugout.

Cops have released surveillance video from a neighbor of the park showing a suspicious man running near the park along Rosemont near Mayhew, and ducking out of sight when cars approached. This man is not being called a suspect, but cops would like to talk to him about what he may have seen.

Also, video shows that at least five people walked through Rosemont Park while Jessica was there. Cops would like to talk to these people. They were in the park between 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on the night of March 4.

During the investigation, about 350 people have been interviewed so far.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktl...,1817087.story

[Whisper]

Reward Offered in Murder of Girl Found Dead in Park

ROSEMONT, Calif. -- Sacramento County is offering a $10,000 for information in the murder of a 13-year old girl found dead in a park.

Jessica Funk-Haslam was found dead near the dugout of the baseball fields at Rosemont Park on March 5.

The 13-year-old girl had trauma to her head, a stab wound to her neck, and had been asphyxiated.
Officials brought in criminalists to help analysis the evidence gathered at Rosemont Park to narrow down the suspect search.

Investigators say once Jessica left her house after an argument with her mother that Monday night, she boarded at least two light rail trains, then transferred to a bus and got off at Rosemont Park.
[...]
She was killed between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and investigators say she was killed where her body was found the following morning near the baseball dugout.

Cops have released surveillance video from a neighbor of the park showing a suspicious man running near the park along Rosemont near Mayhew, and ducking out of sight when cars approached.

This man is not being called a suspect, but cops would like to talk to him about what he may have seen.

Also, video shows that at least five people walked through Rosemont Park while Jessica was there. Cops would like to talk to these people.

They were in the park between 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on the night of March 4.

During the investigation, about 350 people have been interviewed so far.

That includes about 250 homeowners around Rosemont Park and between 50-100 students at Albert Einstein Middle School.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktl...,1817087.story

[Whisper]

My child's in a room with two detectives being questioned and grilled and I’m sure he was quite frightened, which is very upsetting,” said Michaela Brown, the mother of one of the students that was questioned.

Brown says a friend of her son who's also been questioned more than once in this investigation has left the school because of the treatment of other students who found out.

FOX40 received a message Monday morning that questioned whether those students who had DNA taken should have had their parents with them.

Surprisingly, the answer is no.

"Regardless of whether the individual is an adult or a juvenile, they are capable of giving consent. We don't require the consent of a parent if we're doing it with someone of a younger age," said Deputy Jason Ramos of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

FOX40 legal analyst Ken Rosenfeld agrees.

"Ideally, you'd want the juvenile's parents or legal guardian there, but the police don't have to have them there to take a DNA swab," Rosenfeld said.

If detectives had wanted to draw blood from the middle schoolers, then a parent would have to be present and because of the 4th amendment. Detectives would also need a warrant.

"As long as it's a non-invasive procedure - a cotton swab, taking a soda can after somebody drinks from it, or a water bottle after someone drinks from it -- that's going to be fine, that's going to be allowed," said Rosenfeld.

Administrators at Albert Einstein met their legal obligations by calling the parents and telling them what was happening, though in at least one case a voicemail message was left for a parent.

"Anytime authorities come to our school and want to talk to our students, our first priority is to make sure we let parents know immediately," said Gabe Ross of the Sacramento City Unified School District
[...]

http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/...ory?hpt=ju_bn6

[Silvahalo]

Omg, how very tragic. I hope they find her killer(s) soon.

This is her FB. https://www.facebook.com/JessicaFunkHaslam
Because I'm leaning more on this being some wicked punk kids involved, (tho the rage on on her does seem personal), ...also the mother's bf and assault thing...hmm.
I was looking at comments on this picture on her fb. Interesting to read how people post.

[Silvahalo]

Teens willingly provide DNA in investigation of Rosemont girl's slaying, detectives say

Last Modified: Wednesday, Apr. 18, 2012 - 8:30 am

In the six weeks since a 13-year-old girl was found dead in a Rosemont park, detectives have been methodically working their way through the "usual suspects" in a homicide case.

They questioned and cleared the sex offenders in the neighborhood near the park. They looked at Jessica Funk-Haslam's family.
Now, Sacramento County sheriff's investigators are mired in the work of processing her friends and peer group – sifting rumors for leads and eliminating potential suspects as they go.


It is with this goal in mind, detectives say, that they have swabbed a number of area teenagers to gather DNA.
A recent media report raised questions about detectives taking cheek swabs last week from a handful of students at Albert Einstein Middle School without parental consent. Funk-Haslam was an eighth-grader at the school.
On Tuesday, detectives told The Bee that they have taken DNA swabs from students on that campus as well as others on a few occasions since the girl was found beaten, stabbed and asphyxiated in a baseball diamond dugout March 6.
Sheriff's detectives said that in each case, the minor gave consent following a lengthy explanation about the reason for the swab and how it would be used. They said parental permission is not necessary in such cases, and that they believe each student who gave DNA was capable of consenting.
[...]

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/18/442...#storylink=cpy