SIOUX FALLS - An 8-year-old girl was kidnapped from her grandmother's trailer home, driven to a remote area of Hanson County and raped and killed early Saturday, authorities said.
Sioux Falls police arrested the grandmother's live-in boyfriend, Murray James Jones, 41, of Sioux Falls on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree rape and kidnapping, said police Chief Doug Barthel.
Jessica Rae Delatorre and her two brothers, ages 4 and 11, were spending the night at their grandmother's trailer in Pine Meadow Mobile Home Park in Sioux Falls. The grandmother was away for the night, and Jones was left to watch the children, Barthel said.
He said the grandmother and Jones had been in a relationship for several years.
''It's not uncommon for the children to spend the night at their grandma's, and this was just one of those nights,'' he said.
Barthel said while Delatorre's brothers were sleeping, Jones kidnapped the girl, drove her to a spot off a gravel road just east of Fulton and raped and killed her. Authorities found Delatorre's body at about 2 p.m. under some trees at the site, about 65 miles west of the trailer park.
''Initially, when we had information where the child was at, there was some hope that maybe she might still be alive,'' Barthel said. ''Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.''
Delatorre and her two brothers live in Sioux Falls with their mother, Barthel said.
The grandmother called police just before 8:30 a.m. Saturday after she returned home and found her granddaughter missing. Investigators started working Delatorre's disappearance as a missing person's case, but their interest quickly turned to Jones, Barthel said.
Jones cooperated with investigators and eventually led them to the girl's body in Hanson County, he said.
Barthel said the medical examiner will determine Delatorre's cause of death, but it didn't appear a weapon was used. Investigators were obtaining a warrant Saturday to search the trailer.
The state's attorneys from Minnehaha and Hanson counties decided that Jones would be charged in Minnehaha County, Barthel said.
The state Department of Criminal Investigation and sheriff's offices from Davison and Hanson counties assisted on the case.
