Two teenage girls have been charged in the “heinous” murder of a missing 13-year-old girl who was found bludgeoned, stabbed and burned to death.
Ka’Niyah Baker was found dead in a fire at an unoccupied residence in Capital Heights, South Carolina, on Jan. 15, two days after she had been reported missing, officials said.
She “suffered traumatic injuries to her face and body and had been severely burned,” Columbia Police Chief “Skip Holbrook told a press conference, describing the murder as “heinous, vicious and monstrous.”
Although there was no evidence at the home to identify the victim, police later realized it was the missing girl.
Due to “severe trauma to the head face and body,” authorities had to use the sheriff’s DNA lab to identify Baker as the victim, Richard County Coroner Naida Rutherford said, adding that the cause of her death was blunt force trauma.
“This is a horrible homicide,” Rutherford said. “Ka’Niyah was bludgeoned, stabbed and burned.”
Baker recently entered foster care in Columbia and had a “history of running away,” Holbrook said.
Police arrested two female suspects, aged 15 and 16, and charged them with Baker’s murder.
The 16-year-old suspect had also been reported missing on Jan. 12.
She has a “history of disorderly conduct” and is wanted by the Department of Juvenile Justice after “cutting off her ankle monitor.”
The suspect is a “frequent runaway” who has not been in school since January 2024, Holbrook said.
Meanwhile, the 15-year-old suspect is also a “frequent runaway” who was last enrolled in school in December 2024.
Authorities hope to prosecute the two teens charged as adults, Columbia Solicitor Byron E. Gipson said.
