California police searching for the murderer of an eight-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in her home believe they may have collected finger prints and DNA from the crime scene.
As the manhunt continues for the man who killed Leila Fowler in Valley Springs, authorities are also still talking to the victim's 12-year-old brother who found his sister slain in the family home on Saturday afternoon.
According to police, the boy encountered the intruder who immediately fled leaving the bloody evidence of his crime for the terrified child to find.
He called 911 and she was later pronounced dead at hospital.
Captain Jim Macedo told reporters that the victim's brother is not being treated as a suspect at this time, but that police 'are continuing to talk to him which is normal because he was the last person with the child.'
He added that police expect to have lab results of the prints and DNA findings in a week.
Residents in Calveras County have been ordered to lock their doors as deputies search for the suspected killer, who is described as a white or Hispanic male with long gray hair.
He is believed to be at least six feet tall and was last seen wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and blue pants.
A neighbor said he spotted the suspect fleeing shortly after the 911 call.
Police officers from neighboring areas have been called in to help as authorities hunt down the suspect.
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While door-to door searches are proving fruitless, the residents are still reeling shock that in such a quiet, rural area, such a thing could happen.
'This is way too close to home,' Julia Poland, who took her 13-year-old daughter to an afternoon news conference on the search, told the Modesto Bee. 'This kind of thing does not happen here.'
A neighbour, Roger Ballew told the Associated Press: 'I was working on my tractor and a CHP copter kept flying over my house.' After a SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night and told him to stay inside, he admitted: 'It was nerve-wracking, I didn't sleep well.'
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Horrifying: Leila Fowler's 12-year-old brother was at their home with her in Valley Springs around noon on Saturday when he encountered the intruder, who immediately fled
Intruder murder of girl, 8, devastates community
Immediately after the 911 call was reported, a quarter-mile perimeter was set up around the house as police conduct the house-to-house search.
'We were doing a house-to-house search and in some cases we're searching extensively into attics and storage sheds,' Calveras County officer Jim Macedo told CBS Sacramento. He added: 'It’s a difficult area to search. It’s rural, it’s remote.'
Macedo said the girl was suffering from severe injuries and her death has been ruled a homicide. He urged residents to keep their doors locked until they find the suspect.
Leila would have turned nine-years-old in June.
Manhunt: California police officers are searching for the man suspected of murdering a 9-year-old girl
Witness: The girl's 12-year-old brother was at their home with her in Valley Springs around noon on Saturday when he encountered the intruder, who immediately fled
Lockdown: Residents in Calveras County have been ordered to lock their doors as deputies search for the suspected killer
Schools in the Calaveras Unified School District will be open Monday.
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Mark Campbell, the district’s superintendent, said in a statement Sunday that there will be an added law enforcement presence at Jenny Lind Elementary and bus stops nearby.
Valley Springs is a community of about 2,500 people in an unincorporated area of Calaveras County, known as "Gold Country," in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.