Two Months Later, Child's Murder Remains Unsolved

On a warm summer night two months ago, 12-year-old Jessica Nguyen was found brutally stabbed to death.

Today, police have still not caught her killer.

On the evening of May 31, Nguyen, a sixth-grader at Gaithersburg Middle School, had only been home from class for a few hours when her body was found in the basement of her family's home in the 700 block of Raven Avenue.

The gruesome discovery launched an intense police investigation that included interviews with family and friends, sweeps of the nearby woods with metal detectors, and the collection of forensic evidence.

But days passed, and County police made no arrests.

Nguyen's family held a at Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church in Silver Spring. Then they buried their daughter at All Souls Cemetery in Germantown.

The medical examiner in Baltimore said Nguyen suffered trauma to her upper body, and .

The days turned into weeks, and still Police made no arrests. They kept most details of their investigation closely guarded—except one, which still remains vague at best.

A key piece of forensic evidence has been sent to the lab, and detectives are waiting for the results. What the evidence is and what it could indicate, police won't say.

And so now, two months after the grisly discovery, that is where the investigation remains.

"The investigation is ongoing," said Angela Cruz, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County Police. "We're waiting on some forensic evidence to come back, and we're following leads."

Is two months a long time to wait for forensic evidence?

"I don't think it's unreasonable," she said.

Meanwhile, there has been an outpouring of grief from the community.

A vigil of friends and community members crowded the street in front of Nguyen's home days after the murder. Pictures, notes and balloons were left at the doorstep, and melted candles lined the curb in remembrance.

A Facebook group titled "R.I.P. Jessica Nguyen, you will be forever missed & love" has 1,178 likes.

Posts like "god and ur friends love u. R.i.p." and "Still can't beileve ur gone. Its like yesterday we were playingg at the parkk but now I just can't beileve I will never get to talk to u again R.I.P ily," are most common, interspersed with outrage against her at-large killer.

Since police refused to say if they suspect a stranger or someone Nguyen knew, the possibility that a killer is roaming the streets has not gone unnoticed in Nguyen's neighborhood, either.

One neighbor Fox5 spoke to said people are taking extra security precautions.

"I think it's very interesting, if you look around the neighborhood, you can see all the different security companies that have popped up all of a sudden,” said Tod Hazlett, who lives just around the corner from the crime scene.

“I know that once the news broke on (May) 31, we were here after our son was born and immediately, we called and had the system turned on. So we just don't feel safe right now."

At the time of the murder, Nguyen's family was in the process of of their home.