FBI Reexamining Murder Case Of 13-Year-Old Indiana Girl
(CBS) -- After more than a decade, an FBI task force is stepping in to help solve the murder of a 13-year-old Indiana girl.
Alexandra "Alex" Anaya was last seen on Aug. 13, 2005 in her Hammond, Ind. home. Part of her dismembered body was discovered floating in the Little Calumet River a few days later.
CBS2's Mai Martinez reports on the renewed effort to solve the case.
The case was brought to the FBI's attention by a Chicago police detective assigned to the task force, who thought the resources of the FBI might be able to finally solve the case after all these years.
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Alex Anaya's life was taken away from her more than 11 years ago.
"Haunts you after a while," retired Hammond Police Department Lt. Ronald Johnson says while looking at a smiling photo of the young girl.
Johnson, who retired in 2006, was originally assigned the case.
He said the case stuck with him for a while.
"The thing that sticks with you about this case is the gruesome way she was murdered and the way she was found. It's not right that anybody should be treated that way."
On Aug. 16, 2005, Anaya's torso, with a chain wrapped around it, was found floating in the Little Calumet River in Chicago.
With no major break in the case in the 11 years since, the FBI is hoping a new round of interviews and forensic testing will yield new clues. They're also asking anyone who might know anything about a necklace Anaya might have been wearing, to come forward.
"Time works in the favor of ongoing investigations," Special Agent Courtney Corbett, the lead FBI investigator says of the case. "From my experiences from other cases, people decide to come forth maybe it's something weighing heavy on their heart or they know information that they feel wasn't significant at that time."
And the FBI has a message for Anaya's killer:
"We have the full force of the FBI and the federal government behind this investigation and we are going to bring someone to justice for this crime," Corbett says.
