15-Year-Old Held in Killing of Girl in Vacant Apartment

Authorities said Wednesday that they are questioning a 15-year-old boy in the slaying of an adolescent girl whose body was found in an empty first-floor apartment near USC.

The half-clothed body of Meshawnta Allen, 12, was discovered Tuesday in a vacant apartment in the 600 block of West 30th Street, Los Angeles police said.

The suspect is a 10th-grader at a private school in West Covina. Police said Meshawnta lived near where she was killed.

Orine LaFayette, the landlady of the apartment building where the body was found, identified the suspect as her nephew. She said the teen-ager and the girl met about two months ago at a party.

Her husband, Curtis, told authorities that he discovered the girl’s body Tuesday while he was clearing weeds beside the small complex. He said he noticed that a screen was ajar, looked inside and saw the girl’s body slumped over a bed. The apartment has been vacant about a year.

“I just really can’t relate to it,” his wife said. “Just the idea that this child was dead. When my husband told me, I just went into a tizzy.”

Police said they were looking into the possibility that another suspect may have been involved in the killing. Results of an autopsy are expected today.

The girl’s mother had filed a missing person report Sunday at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Newton station, said Detective Lt. Victor Guzman of the Southwest Bureau. The girl had been missing almost three days before her body was found, he said.

Guzman said the girl was apparently killed inside the apartment. Large bloodstains could be seen on a mattress Wednesday afternoon.

The teen-ager, who also lived in the complex, was arrested Tuesday afternoon after he returned from school, police said.

“I really don’t know what happened,” said his aunt, adding that she usually checked the empty apartment once or twice a week. “But whatever happened, he had no business down there and he knows that. I’m just still in shock. I can’t believe this.”