Pima County Sheriff's detectives searched a desert area on the northwest side Wednesday in search of clues they hope would lead to an arrest in a homicide of a 13-year-old girl in 2014.
The body of Maribel Victoria Gonzalez was found June 6, 2014 northwest of Tucson, on the east side of Trico Road, about a half-mile south of Avra Valley Road, authorities said. The discovery was made after a deputy responded to a call about suspicious activity in the area.
Deputy Ryan Inglett, a sheriff's spokesman, said that detectives recently discovered additional information in the case that led them back Oct. 25 to the desert area where the teen's body was found.
Inglett said detectives were searching the area "in hopes of finding evidence, which would help lead to an arrest."
No further information was released in the ongoing investigation.
In October 2014, an autopsy report had Maribel's cause of death redacted.
The teen was last seen June 3 at about 8 p.m. when she told her mother she was going to a friend's house. When Gonzalez did not return by morning, her mother called the friend and learned she never arrived. She was reported missing to the Tucson Police Department on June 4, and the department classified her as a runaway, said her father Abrian Gonzalez in a July 2014 interview with the Star.
