The Brutality Of Strawberry Shortcake

In March 2011 Micaela Castanzo, known to everyone as Mickey, was a sixteen-year-old at West Wendover High School in West Wendover, Nevada, a small casino town on the Utah border in Elko County. She was the youngest of three sisters, a track athlete, editor of the school newspaper and a popular, hard-working pupil who wanted to become a writer. Her sister DJ, eighteen, was her closest companion; her older sister Christina was married and living in Las Vegas; her mother Celia worked at one of the local casinos. details of the account remain covered until revealed He had dated Mickey briefly when they were younger. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

On Thursday 3 March 2011 Mickey stayed for track practice until about five o'clock. Her sisters were away and her parents were out of town, so for the first time nobody collected her and she set out to walk the mile home. A camera recorded her leaving by a rear door at about 5.15. She never arrived. Her mother's calls rang out and then went to voicemail, and Celia, who had been at work, called the police and drove home. By the time officers arrived more than eighty people were already searching. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Other witnesses and the video placed her alone at the rear exit, and a second interview was arranged.

On Friday 4 March she did not appear at school, and her family gave up hoping she had simply gone off with friends. Christina, who had been in Las Vegas for a NASCAR race, had her husband drive her home and spent the night searching the desert and the gravel pits. On Saturday 5 March a volunteer noticed disturbed ground and sagebrush about five miles outside town, followed fresh tyre tracks off the desert road, lifted the brush and found what looked like blood. Police gently dug and uncovered part of a human body in a shallow grave. Because the site was outside the city limits and in Elko County there was confusion over jurisdiction, and the state crime-scene team had to drive four hundred miles from Reno, taking nine hours to arrive. The body was Mickey's. She had been beaten, her throat had been cut and she had been stabbed and slashed repeatedly, with several jagged wounds across her face, neck and head; blood had saturated the ground beneath her. Bruises covered her back, one wound had cut her jugular vein, and the cause of death was bleeding. A zip tie was bound around one wrist, suggesting she had been restrained and taken from school against her will. Her backpack lay nearby.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Inside police found a clothesline and a used bar of soap that had not been there before. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He said he buried her in a shallow grave by a big bush and burned her clothes at the gravel pits. this part of the story is covered for now

Mickey's funeral had to be held in a rented thousand-seat concert hall; the town treated her as its own daughter. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In one version she held Mickey's legs while the throat was cut and said "it was both of us". this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty against both.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed A newspaper reconstruction found only about twenty minutes unaccounted for after the driving times, which made parts of her account doubtful, but police were satisfied both had taken part.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Mickey is buried in the family cemetery on a ranch in the high desert mountains outside Wendover.