CNS - As an investigation continued into the death of a middle school girl whose body was wrapped in a rug and dumped in a ditch east of Palmdale, the victim’s family tearfully pleaded today for anyone with information to come forward. The body of 13-year-old Stevona Campbell of Palmdale was discovered around 6:45 a.m. May 12 on Avenue P, between 40th Street East and 50th Street East, said Ed Hernandez of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau. Her death has been ruled a homicide, but the cause of death has yet to be determined, said Lt. John Kadas of the coroner’s office.

“An autopsy has been performed, but the results aren’t back yet,” Kadas said, adding he did not know when they would be available.

Stevona was last seen Sunday night, May 11 when she attended a large Mother’s Day party at her family’s apartment in east Palmdale. She left the party around 7 p.m.—disobeying her mother’s orders to stay home—and never returned, family members told the Los Angeles Times.

“I love you from the depths of my heart,” the victim’s mother, Pamela Brown, told ABC7 through tears.

“I called the kids in about 8 o’clock and she was gone already,” Brown said.

“She left before and she came back at 3 o’clock in the morning, but she never just stayed gone. So I knew that my child was dead. I knew this. I felt it in my heart.”

Brown told the station she believes her daughter left home to be with several boys who may have had something to do with her death.

“She was comfortable with them, whoever they were, and they took advantage of my daughter,” she said.

A farm worker discovered Stevona’s body wrapped in a rug in a ditch beside an onion field east of Palmdale, about a mile away from a shopping center under construction. Family members described the victim as a popular student at Cactus Middle School in east Palmdale.

“She was full of energy, a regular 13-year-old ... the center of attention,” Stevona’s cousin, Lacreasia Chambers, told the Times. “She didn’t deserve this.” The girl’s sister, Joesette Brown, told Channel 7 she wanted her sibling back.

“I wish we would’ve been closer, but I love her and I miss her,” sister Joesette Brown told the broadcast station.

Anyone with information about the case was urged to call the sheriff’s department at (323) 890-5500. A car wash was held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Cactus Middle School, to raise money for funeral expenses.

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