Authorities say a football coach, who also works as a teacher’s aide, has been charged with the murder of a fourth grader after her body was found in his home.
According to the Associated Press, middle-school football coach and teacher's aide, Craig Michael Wood, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Hailey Owens on Wednesday. Prosecutors have also charged him with kidnapping and armed criminal action.
Police believe that the 10-year-old girl was walking home from a friend’s house on Tuesday when she was kidnapped.
The New York Daily News noted that when investigators searched Wood’s home they found the child’s body in the basement with ligature marks on her arms and a gunshot wound to her head.
Neighbors are holding memorials for the child and asking how a coach and aide, whose job it was to look after children on a daily basis, could do such a thing.
Wood did not work at the same school that Owens attended.
Prosecutors can seek the death penalty in this case if they choose.