Photos of Alianna DeFreeze are displayed on a poster during celebratory march for Cleveland police and a vigil for Alianna DeFreeze.Kaylee Remington, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Black on Black Crime Inc. organized a march Saturday to thank Cleveland police officers from the Fourth District for the work they have done in the Alianna DeFreeze case.
The 14-year-old girl went missing on her way to school Jan. 26. Cleveland police officers found her body Jan. 29 in an abandoned building in the 9400 block of Fuller Avenue.
Christopher Whitaker, of South Euclid, has been charged with aggravated murder in Allianna’s death. Whitaker was arraigned early Saturday in Cleveland Municipal Court and is being held on $3 million bond.
More than 100 marchers showed up and marched to Fourth District Headquarters. On the way, they chanted “Who are we standing for? Alianna.”
The marchers gathered at the Fourth District headquarters to thank officers who greeted them outside. They shook hands, exchanged hugs. A few even cried together.
The group then marched to the abandoned Fuller Avenue home where Alianna’s body was found. People prayed and left memorials to the young girl on the porch, the stairs and lawn of the home.
Whitaker is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Feb. 14.
Whitaker, who is a convicted sex offender, is accused of killing Alianna when she transferred buses as she was going to school at E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills Campus Jan. 26.
Authorities have not said how Alianna was killed. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner ruled she died from “multiple injuries.”
DNA evidence gathered by the medical examiner linked Whitaker to the crime, police said.
Alianna got on a bus about 6:45 a.m. that day. Surveillance video showed she got off the bus on East 93rd and Kinsman. She walked west towards a McDonald’s but never went in the restaurant.
She wasn’t seen again until Sunday evening when Cleveland police officers found her body in an abandoned building in the 9400 block of Fuller Avenue.
The medical examiner was unable to positively identify her for three days until a dental records match, the medical examiner said.
Whitaker served four years in prison for a 2005 sexual battery and felonious assault conviction.
He has prior convictions dating back to 1996 for aggravated theft, burglary and criminal trespassing.
This story will be updated.
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