Two-year-old girl found dead in creek 500 yards from her home after Amber Alert search, the neighbor who found her says something guided him straight to her.
A Texas community is mourning after a two-year-old girl who disappeared from her San Antonio neighborhood on Sunday night was found dead in a nearby creek just hours later, less than 500 yards from her home.
Aryana Trevino Martinez was last seen at around 7:45pm wearing a black top and leopard-print trousers.
An Amber Alert was issued shortly after she was reported missing. Surveillance footage appears to show the toddler walking toward the creek before she was found.
Her body was discovered around midnight, approximately four hours after she disappeared.
Authorities have not confirmed her cause of death and the investigation into how she left her home is ongoing.
‘Something led me straight to her’
The heartbreaking discovery was made by 22-year-old Uriel Ramirez, a neighbor who joined the search as soon as the Amber Alert was issued.
His mother Anna Marie Ramirez told local outlet KSAT that the family felt compelled to help immediately.
The search was made nearly impossible by tall grass surrounding the creek, but Uriel kept going. He climbed onto nearby rocks and spotted Aryana in the water below. Without hesitating he jumped in and carried her out.
“She’s like an angel and something led me straight to her, like a direct shot,” he said afterward. “My brain was just ‘that’s where she is.'”
When he emerged from the water he found his mother and said simply: “I found her.”
“I can’t even put it into words,” he added.
A community in shock
The discovery has left neighbors struggling to make sense of what happened. Local resident David Alcantar told WOAI he keeps coming back to the same question.
“The first thing I thought, like everybody else – how did she get out there? How’s a two-year-old get out that way?”
A vigil in memory of Aryana is scheduled for 8pm on Tuesday, where family, friends and neighbors will gather to remember her.
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