A 17-year-old California girl accused of stabbing and killing an Uber driver denied the heinous slay after being charged with murder and torture, officials in National City said.
Raquel Spohn Wehber, 58, was found bludgeoned to death in her Nissan Altima near a neighborhood market last Tuesday, cops said.
The teen stabbed Spohn Wehber multiple times, National City Police Sgt. Kenneth Springer, and was quickly arrested in the backyard of a nearby home after cops followed a trail of blood and found the suspect with 'blood all over her.'
Uber driver Raquel Spohn Wehber, 58, was stabbed and killed inside her car. A 17-year-old girl has been arrested in National City, CA
Spohn Wehber was a married mother and grandmother whose friends and family have set up a memorial for her on Lanoitan Avenue near 18th Street
National City Police found Spohn Wehber with multiple stab wounds as witnesses told them that a girl covered in blood fled the crime scene to a nearby house
Video courtesy of Fox 5 San Diego
Police credit the quick arrest in part to eyewitnesses who spotted the blood-soaked teen running through the neighborhood.
Paramedics worked to save Spohn Wehber, but the mother of two and married grandmother died at the scene, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Spohn Wehber lived in Tijuana, Mexico, but worked as an Uber driver in the San Diego area. Friends and family set up a memorial at the deadly site with flowers, candles and a photograph of Spohn Wehber.
The suspect was arraigned virtually on Friday. She entered a plea of not guilty to the two felony charges in juvenile court through her attorney.
Prosecutor Cherie Sommerville told NBC 7 that the district attorney's office asked Superior Court Judge Ana España to move the case to adult court.
Spohn Wehber's daughter Daniela Martinez set up a gofundme page to raise money for her funeral.
The judge ruled that, given the nature of the allegations, the suspect will remain in juvenile detention. The teen is due back in court on July 20.
Police said there was no confirmation as to whether the suspect and Spohn Wehber knew each other. The motive for the attack remained unknown.
'It's an outrage,' Beatrice Garcia, who is also an Uber driver and was a friend of Spohn Wehber's, told the TV station. "I mean it wasn't one stab, it was multiple stabs, and I don't know what happened, but whatever happened, she didn't deserve to die that way."
Detectives were working to obtain a search warrant for the Uber account of the person who ordered the ride that brought Spohn Wehber to the area, about 10 miles south of San Diego.
'The senseless and brutal crime that took the life of Raquel Spohn Wehber is heartbreaking and our thoughts are with her family,' Uber said in a statement.
A GoFundMe page set up by one of her daughters, Daniela Martinez, has raised more than $5,000.