High school cheerleader missing from Christmas parade found dead at home

A high school cheerleader was found dead in her apartment after she did not turn up at a Christmas parade where she was set to perform.

The body of Edna High School student Lizbeth Medina, 16, was discovered in her apartment in Texas on Tuesday, the same day of the parade.

‘It should have been a great day because she was involved in the Christmas parade,’ Lizbeth’s mother, Jacqueline Medina, told KHOU. ‘She was going to be with the cheer squad.’

Jacqueline found her daughter’s body in their unit at the Cottonwoods apartments and immediately ‘realized she was gone’.

‘Words can’t explain what I felt at that moment finding my daughter in the matter that she was,’ she told KAVU’s Crossroads Today. ‘All I can say is that I hope with all my heart that there is justice for my daughter.’

Lizbeth, an only child, was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, and had been living for a year in Edna, which is located 100 miles southwest of Houston.

‘She was loved by many but most importantly she is loved and will be missed by the family,’ wrote her aunt, Ana Medina, in a GoFundMe page for her.

Police are investigating the crime as a capital murder.

Jacqueline suspects that Lizbeth may have been killed in a break-in, as one happened at their home several weeks ago.

‘She was just in her own home, and they broke in, and unfortunately she was home at the time,’ the mother said.

‘No, there was no laced drugs, there was nothing like that. My daughter was found in a way that no mother should find their child. Someone hurt my child. Someone took my child from me.’

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Edna Police Department.

‘She was my world, my everything,’ Jacqueline said. ‘Everything I do was for her.’

The GoFundMe page had raised more than $6,000 as of Friday afternoon. The high school football team wore purple shirts and ribbons in memory of Lizbeth while playing against Cypress on Thursday. A vigil for Lizbeth is set to take place at the Cowboy Stadium at 6pm on Saturday.

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