Almost two years ago, January 19, 2004, the body of a 15-year-old girl was dumped on a Santa Ana Street and the Los Angeles papers ran photos of her as a Jane Doe. I first wrote about it here on March 8, 2004 because I simply couldn't get her out of my mind. The post was titled Santa Ana Unsolved Teenage Murder Haunts Me. I never expected to be so personally touched by a child I didn't even know and her family, but the power of the Internet to weave a sacred web slowly became apparent.
On March 21 the Los Angeles papers reported that the murdered child's family was found; she was Hanna Denise Montessori, age 15, from Georgia and Maine. I wrote again here on April 21, 2004 in a post I called Murdered Child's Family Found. At that point I began to hear via comments and e-mail from Hanna's family members and friends about why there had been such a delay. The Georgia system of social service, DFACS, had totally screwed up.
On what would have been Hanna's 16th birthday, I heard from Hanna's cousin reporting the case still wasn't solved. I also exchanged e-mails with Hanna's stepmother in Maine. I wrote about it here on March 16, 2005 in a post called It's Hanna Montessori's Birthday and Her Murder Remains Unsolved.
At one point this past year I heard via e-mail that a suspect had been identified but hadn't been charged. Then Hanna's cousin Robin commented here this past week that an extremely thorough feature on Hanna's story was running in a two-part series in Atlanta's newspaper Creative Loafing written by Mara Shaloup. It is a very fine example of investigative reporting that will ultimately help this case to reach resolution. I don't like reading lengthy articles on the screen, but I was compelled to do so because Hanna and her family have become in a small way part of my life. This could be my child, or my grandchild; I want to make sure in my own little way that this kind of screw-up in the bureaucracy doesn't happen again. I keep thinking how the media is blamed for following stories on prominent Caucasian girl's murders and everyone else is simply forgotten. Though Caucasian, Hanna's story has all but fallen through the cracks except for this brave little paper in Atlanta.
Part I of Hanna's story written by can be read at Losing Hanna Part I.
Losing Hanna Part II can be read here.
Why do I continue to write about this girl? I just want to make sure Hanna's story doesn't fade away as a cold case. I can only hope these quotes from Shaloup's story are true:
Earlier this year, more than a year after Hanna was killed, Santa Ana police arrested a suspect in her murder. But in March, the district attorney in Orange County decided there wasn't enough evidence to indict the man, whose name is being withheld while police try to contact additional witnesses.
"Are we trying to bring the case back with more evidence?" Santa Ana Police Sgt. Lorenzo Carillo said in March. "Yes, absolutely."
