( 4UMF NEWS ) Teen Hangs Nine-Year-Old Sister:
A 14-year-old boy in Alabama has been accused of hanging his half-sister to death, according to local police.
Katelynn Arnold, 9, was found dead late Thursday outside her home in the small town of Ragland. The girl was hanging from a tree branch with a rope — that was once part of a tire swing — tied around her neck, the Associated Press reported.
Katelynn’s foster mother made the gruesome discovery when the she went looking for the girl after she didn’t come home.
The teen has been arrested and charged with murder in Katelynn’s death, police said. His name has not been released.
St. Clair County Sheriff Terry Surles told the Associated Press that the boy admitted to hanging his sister. An autopsy found the cause of death to be homicide by strangulation, according to the county coroner.
“It was not accidental. It was definitely intentional,” Surles told WHNT-TV.
The two children had been living with foster parents at the home where the girl’s body was found.
Residents of the tight-knit community were shocked by the girl’s death.
“She never got a chance to grow up. Her life was taken away,” neighbor Ricky Campbell told the Associated Press.
The boy was arrested around 3 a.m. Friday and is being held in a juvenile detention facility, according to WHNT.
The foster parents don’t face any charges in the case, police told the television station.
