Autopsy: Costa Mesa Girl Beaten

A 16-year-old girl whose body was found on a hiking trail in a Costa Mesa park was beaten to death with a heavy object, a coroner’s investigator said Saturday.

An autopsy revealed that Ceceline Godsoe was hit in the head repeatedly with an unknown object and died as a result of blunt force trauma, authorities said.

Her body was discovered about 2:30 a.m. Friday near the grassy edge of a cliff in Fairview Park, which overlooks the Santa Ana River. Godsoe lived with her father only blocks from the park.

No arrests have been made in the case.

On Saturday, as friends built a memorial of flowers along the brushy hiking trail, police combed the park, collecting broken bottles and other items.

William Godsoe recalled his daughter as a lively, independent youth who enjoyed the outdoors.

“She loved walking over there on the bluff,” he said. “She loved to watch the light in the trees and the sound of the wind in the leaves. It was one of her favorite places, where she died.”

Godsoe had lived with her father at the apartment complex for about two years. She was enrolled in independent studies and did not attend a local high school, her father said.

William Godsoe said he last saw his daughter Thursday, when she walked into the apartment about 9 p.m. to get a sweatshirt. She said she was going to be out visiting friends until about 11 p.m., he said.

He said he was awakened later by one of his daughter’s friends banging on the door.

“He was very distraught,” William Godsoe said. “He wanted me to come with him and he took me to her. He told me it had taken a long time to find her, that she had met up with some other people and they had separated.”

William Godsoe said that neither he nor the friend knew who the girl had gone off with.