Yhoana Arteaga was found murdered in her home on Aug. 10. The medical examiner said on Wednesday she was strangled and beaten. (Metro Nashville Police Department)
A Nashville girl who texted her mother an hour before an intruder barged into her home was partially undressed, strangled and beaten to death, the medical examiner said Wednesday.
Yhoana Arteaga's lifeless body was found in her Goodlettsville home, about 15 miles north of Nashville, on Aug. 10, FOX17 Nashville reported. She was found severely beaten, causing injuries chief medical examiner Dr. Feng Li said will haunt him for his life, according to WSMV.
"There is no doubt about that. It was a homicide, a senseless homicide, a brutal murder, yes," Li told FOX17.
Li said he examined the 12-year-old girl’s body for several hours and found she had “injuries on the neck like abrasions, ligature marks, were present.” It’s unclear if Arteaga was raped, though Li said he conducted a rape kit because she was partially undressed.
“We want to see if there is any sexual component,” he said.
Artega was home on crutches due to a skating accident when she texted her mother about 5:30 p.m. saying someone was knocking on the door. About an hour later, her mother arrived home to find her daughter dead.
“A lot of cases stay in your mind, especially the kids – the infant, the child, the adolescents. These are the tragedies we will remember for a long time,” Li said.
No suspects have been named in Arteaga’s death. It’s unclear if any weapons were found in the home at the time of the murder.
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