Police say the suspect murdered 16-year-old Dawson High School student Arrijana Hill in March. Her body was found inside her home in a gated community off East Cedar Hollow Drive in Pearland. The medical examiner says Hill was strangled and stabbed. She was pregnant with twins at the time of her death.
"God managed to give me the strength to just hold on until he said the time was right," her father David Hill told Eyewitness News. "I lost more than a daughter, a friend, my buddy, the one who could make me smile and laugh no matter how bad my day was."
Police say DNA evidence led them to the suspect, who was an acquaintance of the victim. The DNA analysis also determined the suspect is the father of the unborn twins.
Police say the suspect, who was a juvenile at the time of the offense, was taken into custody around noon on Tuesday at Pasadena Memorial High School.
"He was attending Dawson High School, he was a classmate of the deceased. However, about a week after the murder occurred, he transferred to Pasadena ISD," said Pearland Police Department Lt. Patrick Savage.
The 17-year-old suspect now faces capital murder charges and is being held at the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention Center.
"I tell you the joy of getting that call today of saying we have taken someone into custody, it makes the eight weeks of waiting all worth it," said Chris Hartwell, Hill's pastor at Cross Roads Community Church.
Authorities have not yet disclosed the motive behind the murder and they're still searching for the murder weapon.
The case will be prosecuted by the Brazoria County District Attorney's Office.
