FLORENCE — Pinal County authorities don't plan to file additional charges against two teenage suspects charged in the brutal death of a Queen Creek girl.
The stabbed and burned body of 17-year-old Amber LeAnn Hess was found in the desert between Coolidge and Florence on June 25.
Authorities originally believed that Hess was pregnant at the time of her death after an autopsy report said a placenta and umbilical cord segments were inside her uterus.
But Pima County Medical Examiner Bruce Parks said no fetus was present inside Hess and inflammation of the placenta and umbilical cord indicate that the pregnancy was terminated within 24 hours prior to Hess' time of death.
Parks also said that the pregnancy was estimated to be within the first trimester, "perhaps 10 weeks."
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Under Arizona law, prosecutors can file manslaughter, murder or negligent homicide charges against someone who causes the death of an unborn fetus at any stage of development.
But Pinal County prosecutors said Friday that they did not plan to file any new charges in the case.
Todd Hoke and Nicolas Castillo, both 16, were arrested days later and charged as adults with first-degree murder.
Authorities claim Hoke and Castillo, who both attended Coolidge High School with Hess, killed her because they didn't like her.
Arizona
