Mom of Texas teen found dead outside elementary school speaks about what happened

A teen's body was found outside of a Mesquite Independent School District elementary school in Balch Springs on October 17, 2023, police said.

Police initially said the victim was a man, but they later updated that to say it was a boy.

He was identified Wednesday as 16-year-old Lamarya Marquez Dewaine Sanders, according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office.

According to the the Balch Springs Police Department, around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, officers responded to a grassy area near Gray Elementary School, near Pioneer and Elam roads in Balch Springs, which is south of Mesquite.

When emergency crews arrived, including officers, firefighters and medical personnel, the victim was found lying on the ground near the school building and was unresponsive, police said.

Police said life saving measures were performed, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident was not impacting anything at the school, and Mesquite ISD told WFAA that students were purposely kept in the dark. Classes continued as normally as possible.

Sanders' mom Ikingmula Finley is still in disbelief.

“We never thought that was our child sitting up at that school up there,” she said. "We heard the police, we heard the ambulance and all that stuff, but we didn't know that was our child.”

Now the mom of six now searching for answers about what happened to the quiet, homeschooled teen.

“He don't fool with nobody. He always in the house all the time. Or here at the shop, he worked for the people down the strip in the Chinese store and he would go take their boxes out, you know, and work on a daily basis,” Finley said.

FULL STORY: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/loc...