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Last updated on Monday, July 27, 2015
(ELKHART) - Elkhart Police believe that a 12-year-old girl was responsible for setting a fire in her bedroom and then stabbing multiple family members during an argument.
WTHR reports, emergency crews were called to a fire in the 900 block of Prairie Street just after 10 p.m. Thursday after a person playing in a playground saw smoke coming from the apartment complex.
The people ran to the apartment and notified people to get out, next thing they saw was a young girl and her father stumbling out of the building covered in blood.
When police entered the apartment, they found 50-year-old Maria Torres suffering from stab wounds. She later died from her injuries.
The girl's father, a 49-year-old man who police are not naming at this time, suffered non-life threatening stab injuries. He was transported to Elkhart General Hospital.
Torres' 16-year-old daughter was asleep in the apartment when everything unfolded exited the building uninjured.
Late Friday morning, Elkhart Police made this statement: "At this time it appears a twelve (12) year old girl was upset and started a fire in her bedroom; leading to a verbal altercation between the girl and her step-mother. The altercation turned deadly when the girl allegedly stabbed the step-mother with a knife, which is believed to be the cause of death. When the girl's father tried to restrain the daughter he was also stabbed with the knife. After being involved in the altercation the girl fled from the residence."
"Elkhart Police Officers, Detectives and Deputies from the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department searched the area and located the twelve (12) year old girl walking in the area of Bristol Indiana. The girl was taken into custody, and is being held in the Elkhart County Juvenile Detention Center pending a hearing."
Crime scene tape lingered Friday as investigators went through the apartment. Meanwhile all the families that live inside the building had to be displaced.
Police say detectives that handle juvenile cases weren't familiar with the 12-year-old's name, nor did they have any reports of arguments and domestic disputes for this address.
Snyder explained that police determined shortly after firefighters discovered Torres' stabbed body that the 12-year-old girl was likely responsible. The task now i determining what sparked the girl's anger before she set the fire, and what motivated her to allegedly take violent actions against her step mother.
An autopsy was conducted Friday on Maria Torres, and the coroner determined that the woman died from sharp force injuries. The manner of death was ruled homicide.
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