UPDATE: A 14-year-old Mundelein girl has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a younger relative in her home. Both the suspect’s name and the victim’s name have not been released. The victim’s body and a small kitchen knife — believed to be the murder weapon — were found in the bedroom. The bedroom showed signs that a struggle occurred.
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Mundelein police responded about 8:25 a.m. Tuesday to a report of an unconscious girl lying in a bedroom of a townhouse in the block of 1600 Woodhaven Court. Police arrived within minutes and found an 11-year-old female dead. A 14-year-old girl was taken into custody and transported to the Lake County juvenile detention center near Vernon Hills.
Mundelein High School, Mechanics Grove Elementary and Carl Sandburg Middle School were placed on lockdown after the 11-year-old gorl’s body was discovered, but Mundelein police did not immediately provide any reason for the lockdown. The lockdowns were lifted between 8:45 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Mundelein school officials were not given any details about the incident — only that the incident was a “dangerous situation.”
Police did not respond to questions from the media and provided no alerts with any details about the reasoning behind the lockdown for 11 hours after the murdered girl’s body was discovered at about 8:30 a.m.
The Mundelein Police Department has no online News or Press Release section on their official police website. The police department also does not operate any Twitter account or Facebook account for citizen alerts, which does not meet the standard level of public alerts from leading police departments nationwide (See PublicSafetyReporter.com/police-twitter).
EXAMPLE TWITTER NOTIFICATION (NYPD) …
M/30s WANTED for forcibly touching a 16y/o girl on #7 train at 74 St & Roosevelt station Qns 1/16 #115Pct pic.twitter.com/X1R9v4afKM
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 19, 2014
Example notification from NYPD using NYPD’s official Twitter account.
While some people in Mundelein complained about lack of information from police, others felt the incident was managed well — citing that school officials especially did a good job during the lockdowns.
The Mundelein Police Department and the Lake County Major Crime Task Force are working together on the death investigation.
See also …
www.mundelein.org/police
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