WALLER COUNTY, Texas – The body found at 11100 Mayfield Road on Wednesday is Adriana Coronado, the 14-year-old who was reported missing after her father was found dead.
Police said they responded to a call about a body laying by the road. It was later determined through fingerprinting that it was the body of Adriana Coronado.
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An Amber Alert was issued earlier this week for Adriana.
Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae confirmed to investigative reporter Jace Larson that an an item found on a body discovered in Houston matches an item Coronado owned.
McRae declined to say publicly what that item is.
The teen was last seen in Katy on Saturday. Her father, Caesar Vladimir Coronado Mato, was found the following day dead near a ditch in Walker County.
No motive had been established for the crime, the Sheriff said.
Caesar Coronado had sustained several gunshot wounds and his body was badly burned. Investigators believed Coronado was kidnapped by her father's killer, but no ransom demands were ever made.
The father's truck was also found burned several miles away in Conroe.
The Walker County Sheriff's Office on Thursday released video of a man seen running from an area along I-45 and Enterprise Row, where the burned vehicle was found. McRae said he firmly believes that the person seen running in the video is connected to the case because the man was running immediately after the truck started to burn.
Video shows a Ford F-150 truck driving near the scene, and is possibly connected to the case.
The AMBER Alert teen’s father is thought to have come to the U.S. illegally, according to a federal law enforcement source I talked to.
— Jace Larson (@jacelarson) March 18, 2016
There were several unidentified female bodies found in Houston on the same day, McRae said, and the Medical Examiner’s Office is working to identify them.
“We’re waiting on additional testing by the ME’s office to confirm the identity of those individuals that were located,” he said.
He stressed that there is no positive confirmation that the body found with the item linked to Coronado is actually her.
DNA testing is one way officials may try to identify the body, but results can take weeks, he said. Other tests may be used that take less time which include dental records.
McRae says his office has received dozens of tips on this case and officers have been tracking down each one.
As of Friday afternoon, he said there are multiple persons of interest
McRae said Mato has served time in prison in Mexico, but McRae declined to say why.
A federal source says Mato is believed to have been in the United States illegally.
Adriana Cavazos, the mother of the 14-year-old, was in Mexico recovering from surgery when she received news about her husband and daughter.
The mother told Channel 2 that she spoke to her husband and daughter on the phone Friday evening, and the two were together. She said they seemed to be happy, and she did not get the impression that anything was wrong.
The mother also said that Adriana planned to have friends come over on Saturday, but when those friends arrived to the house, no one was home.
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Friends gather to pray for missing girl. Story at 10pm.
Posted by KPRC2 Robert Arnold on Wednesday, March 16, 2016
The mother returned home Thursday night.
As these details come out, I think all of our hearts go out to this family & the teen’s friends. Let’s keep them in our thoughts.
— Jace Larson (@jacelarson) March 18, 2016
If you have a tip about this case or a story idea for investigative reporter Jace Larson, email jlarson@kprc.com or text 832-493-3951.
all you can do is pray sometimes #FindAdriana pic.twitter.com/83PQcmqUHg
— tolu (@thatssotolu) March 16, 2016