Suspect Arrested + More Details Are Released In The Case Of Kayla Gomez-Orozco
A suspect is in the case of missing Kayla Gomez-Orozco sits in the Smith County Jail without bail while the body that is believed to be that of the 10 year old missing Tyler girl is sent to Dallas for an autopsy.
During a press conference this afternoon, Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith said that Kayla Gomez-Orozco was found in a well Saturday evening in Bullard between two houses on Old Jacksonville Hwy., one of which belonged to a family member. Tyler Fire Department crews recovered the body from the well around midnight and according to KETK, she was still wearing the clothes that were described in the Amber Alert that went out last Tuesday.
The family member that is believed to be responsible for her death is in the Smith County Jail and is being held without bond on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detainer. The suspect does have a criminal background for assault causing bodily injury back in 2014 and has been deported twice and was in the U.S. illegally. Sources identify this man to be Gustavo Zavala-Garcia, 24.
Sheriff Smith said the scene has been processed and that law enforcement will also be processing a new area as early as tomorrow morning while they await preliminary autopsy results from Dallas.
Sunday evening hundreds of people turned out for a prayer and candlelight vigil at Kayla's school in south Tyler, Jack Elementary. The school has huge pink ribbons adorning the columns of the school along with pink ribbons tied around all of the trees on the front of the campus. This tragedy is pulling people together in Tyler, Smith County and East Texas like never before. Tyler ISD says they will have additional counselors on the Jack Elementary campus to help teachers, staff and, most importantly, the students deal and cope with this tragedy.
We will continue to follow this story as new details become available.