Holly MatkinLogansport, IN – The 12-year-old girl arrested for allegedly torturing another pre-teen during a sleepover has also been charged for allegedly assaulting another young girl on a school bus.
Cass County Prosecutor Noah Schafer said the violent assault that took place on the bus occurred just hours before the sleepover attack, WXIN reported.
Natasha Conklin said that when her 11-year-old daughter got off the bus Feb. 25, she was missing chunks of hair and had scratches on her face and arms, according to the Pharos Tribune.
“She was just a crying mess,” Conklin said. “When she came in the door and I saw her, I said, ‘We’re done handling this through the school. We’re going straight to the police station.’”
The victim said the 12-year-old girl cursed at her and threatened to kill her while pulling her hair and punching her as she sat on the bus, according to Conklin.
Other students recorded the attack, the victim’s mother said.
The victim covered her head with her arms and leaned against the back of the seat in front of her at one point while she was being beaten, the Pharos Tribune reported.
“Honestly, I just felt tired,” the victim later said, according to the paper. “That’s why I didn’t do anything. I just felt tired.”
The Logansport Police Department (LPD) confirmed that the assault was captured on video, WXIN reported.
It is unclear whether or not the bus driver was even aware of the incident, the Pharos Tribune reported.
Conklin said the same suspect targeted her daughter twice before.
After the second attack, she reached out to the school and was pleased with how the principal addressed the issue, the Pharos Tribune reported.
Conklin said she felt confident her daughter would be safe moving forward.
After the third assault, she went straight to the police.
“It’s definitely a situation that, as a parent, you don’t want to ever even think about happening,” Conklin told the Pharos Tribune. “I never would have thought about this happening to her.”
She said she believes her daughter probably wouldn’t have spoken up about the latest beating if she hadn’t seen her injuries because she was so afraid of further retaliation, according to her mother.
“I definitely feel like she’s going to have issues trusting anybody,” Conklin told the Pharos Tribune. “She’s definitely going to worry and look over her shoulder. It’s probably going to be a little harder for her to want to make friends with people, not knowing if something similar is going to happen with another child.”
Schafer confirmed the 12-year-old suspect has been “charged with an allegation of battery,” as a result of the assault on the school bus, WXIN reported.
The same suspect has also been charged with brutally beating and torturing a 12-year-old girl during a supposed sleepover just hours after the bus incident, according to WXIN.
Renita Contreras, the second victim’s aunt, said her niece was “tortured, beaten, [and] confined” during the harrowing assault.
“Two juvenile females sat on top of her for two hours so she could not breathe, they burned her with cigarette lighters,” Contreras told WXIN. “It goes on and on.”
That incident began the evening of Feb. 25, when two girls the 12-year-old girl thought were her friends invited her to a sleepover, the victim’s family said.
By the following morning, she’d been burned, nearly suffocated, half of her head had been shaved, and she had cuts to her face from a sharp object, they told WXIN.
The victim’s family notified the LPD about the incident at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 26.
“They didn’t bully her. They tortured her,” said the victim’s mother, Jaimie Tribbett. “Mentally, physically tortured my daughter and it’s not right.”
The victim’s family said the girl’s attackers videoed the brutal assault and shared the footage with others.
Contreras, who watched the video, said her niece looked like she was dead.
“It wasn’t an image our family needed to see or was ever ready to see,” she told WXIN. “She’s a little girl. What these juvenile females did to her is unimaginable.”
The victim is still recovering from her physical injuries, and Tribbett said she’s concerned about how the attack has impacted her psychologically.
“It hurts bad because now she has to for the rest of her life look over her shoulder or wonder if she can trust this person or that person. It’s absolutely horrible,” Tribbett told WXIN. “I hope that my daughter can get justice.”
Two preteen girls have been arrested in connection with the assault on the second victim.
LPD Sergeant Dan Frye described the attack as “severe,” and said the videos were “heart wrenching,” WXIN reported.
“Those are not enjoyable calls for anyone in law enforcement, and this one in particular goes to the extreme with the alleged suspects being juveniles as well,” Sgt. Frye said. “More times than not, we deal with adults victimizing juveniles and this one was a little bit different.”
One of the juvenile suspects was ordered to be detained during her initial appearance on March 1, WXIN reported.
That suspect has been charged with the juvenile equivalents of felony battery resulting in serious bodily injury, felony intimidation with a deadly weapon, and felony criminal confinement resulting in serious bodily injury.
Sgt. Frye said the case is still under investigation and that additional charges could be forthcoming.
“My heart goes out for the young lady,” he told WXIN. “Our investigation is ongoing.”
Conklin said she believes the ramifications of the suspect’s actions are “far from over,” the Pharos Tribune reported.
“It’s just the beginning, and I fear that if this girl does get to come back to school or she gets out of wherever she is, she’s going to come back for these girls,” she said.
