An Indiana teen who was the focus of an AMBER Alert earlier this week — after cops found her mom stabbed to death inside their empty house — is now being charged with her murder.
Chastinea Reeves, 15, was believed to be in “extreme danger” on Monday following the grisly discovery, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana.
She had gone missing at around 2 a.m. — ten minutes before her mother, Jamie Garnett, 34, was found butchered inside their residence in Gary, cops said.
Worried that Reeves may have been kidnapped, Authorities issued the AMBER Alert and searched for her until Thursday before she was eventually found safe.
In the hours after her mom’s murder, Reeves reportedly ran to the home of her aunt, Kelli McMillan, and was accompanied by a younger sibling. The relative later claimed that the teen was “hysterical.”
“Two children came to my door a little after 2 a.m. and they said someone had come in, somebody had did something to their mom,” McMillan told ABC7. “She run out the back door when the police come.”
But while Reeves may have seemed sincere, it was apparently all an act.
Lake County prosecutors charged the young girl with her mother’s murder on Thursday night and detained her at the Gary juvenile center, the Times reports.
Earlier in the evening, the local coroner’s office confirmed that Garnett’s cause of death had been stab wounds in the manner of a homicide.
“Wow — how do you kill your mother?” said Jay Lew, one of the many neighbors who were shocked by the news.
“I remember (Garnett) taking her children to school in the mornings and coming home from work,” he told CBS. “Just being with children.”
Prosecutors are currently seeking a waiver to have Reeves tried as an adult. The teen appeared in juvenile court on Thursday and is expected back on April 12.
Police did not give a motive or details about their investigation.
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