Family and friends of 16-year-old Alicia Chanta Moore, who went missing Friday and whose body was found in a trunk near a Texas highway, are angry about how the police handled her case, the Dallas Morning News reports.
They wonder why investigators didn't make her disappearance public sooner, and question why an Amber Alert wasn't issued to spread the word beyond city limits when it was clear, in their view, that the teen had not simply run simply:
Police said she appears to have suffered trauma wounds, though the exact cause of death hasn't been determined. Investigators are treating the case as a homicide. Why she was killed remains a mystery.
Hours after her death was confirmed, her family was recovering from the shock. Her mother, Aretha Moore, could hardly speak. When she started to discuss her daughter's killer, her eyes filled with tears and her voice trailed off …
 "I feel like personally [the police] really dropped the ball," said Cedric Fisher, a family friend.
Police said they understand the family's concerns. But with a 16-year-old, it's hard to determine whether the missing person is in trouble, has run away or has simply failed to tell her family where she is. Even now, they said, they don't know for sure how Moore disappeared, or whether she was abducted.
"We have got a lot of work ahead of us in this investigation," Chief Dan Busken said. "We are only as good as our most recent information."
Moore was last seen leaving school, a place where family and friends said she struggled. Classmates said she kept to herself and was sometimes bullied.Â
Read more at the Huffington Post.