Matthew
01-16-2008, 10:16 AM
A 19-year-old man and a female juvenile were arrested Tuesday in the beating death of an 18-year-old woman, a former El Dorado High School student whose boyfriend came home from school and found her dead Monday.
Dustin Robert Gran III, 19, was booked into the Madera County Jail in connection with the slaying of Krista Pike, who died of blunt-force trauma to the neck and head according to Madera police.
"It's pretty brutal," detective Sgt. Robert Salas said of the city's first killing of 2008. "Nobody's deserving of being assaulted the way this poor girl was."
The 19-year-old boyfriend of the victim is not a suspect, Salas said. He reportedly called police after he returned home from classes at Madera High School and found Pike dead. The boyfriend's family has "been totally cooperative," Salas said.
Madera police say jealousy may have been the motive in Pike's slaying.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Salas said a 16-year-old girl had a prior dating relationship with the victim's boyfriend, and it appears the girl convinced her current boyfriend, Gran, to kill Pike on her behalf.
While awaiting results of an autopsy Tuesday, police searched the neighborhood around the home in the 3300 block of Winter Way but found no physical evidence or weapons that may have been used in the killing.
Those who knew Pike said she recently had moved to Madera from Pollock Pines, where she had been living with her mother.
Since August 2006, she has been a student at El Dorado High School in Placerville, said Jake Bragonier, Madera Unified spokesman.
El Dorado students began to learn of her death Tuesday, and the school was helping them cope with the news, said Principal Jerry Smith.
"We started dealing with it afternoon," he said. "We will be prepared to add counselors. There will be support here for kids."
Smith said Pike left school in November.
Jessica Lozano, a senior at El Dorado High School, described Pike as "nice, outgoing."
"She liked to hang out with friends, and she liked bowling," said Lozano, who rode the bus with Pike.
Another friend, Jonathan Utley, who lives in Pollock Pines, also described her "as a real nice girl."
Pike spent her freshman year and part of her sophomore year at Madera High, Bragonier said. She disenrolled from Madera High in October 2005.
Previously, she had attended Ranchos Middle School in Golden Valley Unified School District, Bragonier said.
Pike's parents have arrived in Madera from separate areas in Northern California, Salas said, but investigators had not yet had a chance to interview them in detail.
The west Madera neighborhood where Pike was found has modern homes and trim yards. A neighbor Tuesday said she had never before seen police at the house where the killing occurred.
"I was home all day and I didn't hear anything at all," said the neighbor, who declined to give her name. "They have four or five dogs ... all the time barking. None of them made a sound."
On a MySpace.com page on the Internet, Pike described herself as outgoing and truthful, a person who would never want to make someone feel out of place.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Madera police at (559) 675-4241 or (559) 675-4242.
Dustin Robert Gran III, 19, was booked into the Madera County Jail in connection with the slaying of Krista Pike, who died of blunt-force trauma to the neck and head according to Madera police.
"It's pretty brutal," detective Sgt. Robert Salas said of the city's first killing of 2008. "Nobody's deserving of being assaulted the way this poor girl was."
The 19-year-old boyfriend of the victim is not a suspect, Salas said. He reportedly called police after he returned home from classes at Madera High School and found Pike dead. The boyfriend's family has "been totally cooperative," Salas said.
Madera police say jealousy may have been the motive in Pike's slaying.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Salas said a 16-year-old girl had a prior dating relationship with the victim's boyfriend, and it appears the girl convinced her current boyfriend, Gran, to kill Pike on her behalf.
While awaiting results of an autopsy Tuesday, police searched the neighborhood around the home in the 3300 block of Winter Way but found no physical evidence or weapons that may have been used in the killing.
Those who knew Pike said she recently had moved to Madera from Pollock Pines, where she had been living with her mother.
Since August 2006, she has been a student at El Dorado High School in Placerville, said Jake Bragonier, Madera Unified spokesman.
El Dorado students began to learn of her death Tuesday, and the school was helping them cope with the news, said Principal Jerry Smith.
"We started dealing with it afternoon," he said. "We will be prepared to add counselors. There will be support here for kids."
Smith said Pike left school in November.
Jessica Lozano, a senior at El Dorado High School, described Pike as "nice, outgoing."
"She liked to hang out with friends, and she liked bowling," said Lozano, who rode the bus with Pike.
Another friend, Jonathan Utley, who lives in Pollock Pines, also described her "as a real nice girl."
Pike spent her freshman year and part of her sophomore year at Madera High, Bragonier said. She disenrolled from Madera High in October 2005.
Previously, she had attended Ranchos Middle School in Golden Valley Unified School District, Bragonier said.
Pike's parents have arrived in Madera from separate areas in Northern California, Salas said, but investigators had not yet had a chance to interview them in detail.
The west Madera neighborhood where Pike was found has modern homes and trim yards. A neighbor Tuesday said she had never before seen police at the house where the killing occurred.
"I was home all day and I didn't hear anything at all," said the neighbor, who declined to give her name. "They have four or five dogs ... all the time barking. None of them made a sound."
On a MySpace.com page on the Internet, Pike described herself as outgoing and truthful, a person who would never want to make someone feel out of place.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Madera police at (559) 675-4241 or (559) 675-4242.