Family Friend Sought in Teen Beating

“A friend of the family” is being sought for questioning in the brutal beating of a 13-year-old girl in Hillcrest last week, authorities said Sunday.

The victim, Marcie Bradburn, was discovered about 10:30 a.m. Friday, unconscious and lying near the site of the abandoned Sears store at Cleveland and University avenues, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

She apparently had been beaten with a baseball bat or other heavy instrument and then choked. The girl lived with her mother in an apartment in the 1400 block of Morrow Way, less than two blocks away.

A 27-year-old man whom the family had befriended was believed to be involved in the beating, Robinson said, but the spokesman stopped short of calling him a suspect. Police did not release the man’s name or his description, but said they believe he is still in the San Diego area.

Bradburn is hospitalized in critical condition with extremely serious head injuries, according to police. Her location is being withheld because the assailant remains at large.