DDN – Two teenage girls from South Carolina have been charged with the “vicious” murder of a 13-year-old girl who was discovered bludgeoned, stabbed, and burned in a vacant house fire.

Ka’Niyah Baker, 13, who was reported missing on January 13, was discovered two days later after a house fire on Cardamon Court, approximately 20 miles from where she was last seen, according to Columbia police.

Columbia Police Chief “Skip” Holbrook stated at a news conference on Saturday that Ka’Niyah “suffered traumatic injuries to her face and body and had been severely burned,” calling her murder “heinous.”

Smoke was spotted pouring from the residence, prompting the fire service to arrive. Once inside, they discovered the teen’s body on the floor. The teen had no identification, and officers couldn’t identify her until the next day.

“The young woman’s description matched a few other women who were reported as runaways or missing,” Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford stated on Saturday.

“So, the reason that the flyer went out for a missing teen, even though this person already deceased, was in the hopes that she was still alive and this was not her.”

Police, according to Holbrook, “worked with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, DNA lab and the coroner’s office to ultimately determine that our victim was their missing juvenile.”

Rutherford verified that the kid died as a result of blunt force injuries, having been “bludgeoned, stabbed, and burned.”

“The manner of death was not an accident, and this was not a suicide,” she said. “This is a horrible homicide.”

The two juvenile girls, aged 15 and 16, arrested in the victim’s death had dropped out of Columbia High School and were regular runaways, according to Holbrook. It’s unclear whether the youngsters and the victim know each other.

He stated that one of the teenagers was wanted by the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice for ripping off her ankle monitor. She was reported “missing” by her mother on January 12.

The solicitor’s office is expected to petition the family court to charge these two juveniles as adults, Fifth Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson said at a press conference on Saturday, adding, “We expect to pursue justice in this matter.”

Holbrook said further facts are expected to come out and pointed to the lack of parents in teens’ life – which he said is a prevalent trend among the “senseless violence” happening in Columbia.

“This is devastating,” Holbrook said. “When you talk to people who have been involved in horrible atrocities like this, you want to get answers and read their reactions. But often the most distressing aspect is the lack of reply. This shocks the conscious to me.”

“We have some work to do with our system,” Holbrook explained. “We have some work to do with our young folks. There is too much sorrow. And we need to fix that.

Reference