What to Know
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A 40-year-old woman was charged in the 1992 fatal shooting of a 12-year-old New Jersey girl, prosecutors announced Thursday[hhmc]
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Quiana Dees was discovered unconscious with a gunshot wound to the head in Neptune Township May 2, 1992; She died the following day[hhmc]
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Because the woman was 13 years old at time of the Dees killing, the charge has been sent to Monmouth County Family Court, Juvenile Division[hhmc]
A 40-year-old woman was charged in the 1992 fatal shooting of a 12-year-old New Jersey girl, prosecutors announced Thursday.
The woman who at one point lived in Asbury Park, but now resides in Henderson, North Carolina, is facing charges of aggravated manslaughter in connection with the killing of Quiana Dees, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher K. Gramiccioni said.
Because the woman was 13 years old at the time of the Dees killing, the charge has been issued as a juvenile delinquency complaint and she faces a maximum prison term of 4 years. Because of confidentiality in juvenile cases, the womans name has not been made public and the case will be heard in Monmouth County Family Court, Juvenile Division
Additionally, the juvenile statues in effect at the time of the crime also preclude the possibility of the case being sent to adult criminal court, Gramiccioni said.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Dees was discovered unconscious with a gunshot wound to the head and clinging to live in a vacant wooded lot on Washington Avenue in Neptune Township on the morning of May 2, 1992. Dees, who was in the seventh grade at the time of her death, left her Asbury Park apartment the previous evening, prosecutors said. She was pronounced dead on May 3, 1992.
As a result of a joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office Cold Case Unit, and members of the Asbury Park, Neptune Township and Henderson, North Carolina Police Departments, the homicide complaint was issued against the former Asbury Park resident.
She remains detained in North Carolina, pending her extradition back to New Jersey to face this charge, prosecutors say.
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