‘I just can’t believe this happened to her,’ Bedford teen’s friend says at vigil

Kaytlynn Cargill went to walk her dog on Monday and never came home.

On Thursday her body was identified as the one found about 2 p.m. Wednesday in an Arlington landfill, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

The cause and manner of her death are pending.

Bedford police did not identify a suspect.

Brooke Kirkland, 15 — who attends Central Junior High School in Euless, where Kaytlynn, 14, was a student — brought balloons to the dog park where Kaytlynn was last seen with her dog, a Doberman Pinscher puppy.

“I didn’t know her personally, but every time I saw her in the hallway she always had a bright smile on her face,” Brooke said. “This just breaks my heart. Nobody deserves this. She had her whole life ahead of her. She had prom. She was going to be able to drive in two years. She’ll never get to experience any of that. I just want to cry.”

Kaytlynn had last been seen at 6:20 p.m. Monday near her family’s apartment in the 1700 block of Oak Creek Lane, near Pennington Field in Bedford, which is about 3 miles northwest of the landfill.

Kaytlynn was walking her dog and had tied the puppy up in a dog park at the apartment complex.

When she did not return from the walk after about 30 minutes, her parents began looking for her. About 8 p.m., her parents reported her as a missing person to Bedford police.

Bedford police did not issue an Amber Alert because detectives said they did not believe she was in danger, based on interviews with friends.

“The kids she was with have been giving us different stories and we’re checking every lead,” police Lt. David Smith said Wednesday.

On Thursday, authorities said they would “bring the person or persons responsible for Kaytlynn’s death to justice,” according to a news release.

Bedford police declined to answer questions, including about the decision to not issue an Amber Alert.

The Texas Department of Public Safety coordinates the Amber Alert network, and certain criteria must be met before an alert is issued, including a reasonable belief by police that an abduction has occurred and that the child is in imminent danger.

‘Please pray’

At the Oak Creek West Apartments where Kaytlynn was last seen, police had been moving through the complex and questioning people much of the day Thursday, said Kimberly Snider and her boyfriend, Zachary McDaniel.

They both said they had seen Kaytlynn’s grandfather on Tuesday, and he seemed very concerned about his granddaughter’s well-being. Kaytlynn was small, standing 4-foot-6 and weighing about 85 pounds.

The couple’s apartment overlooks a dog park and basketball court at the complex. McDaniel said Kaytlynn’s dog was found tied up at the dog park, but she was nowhere to be found.

“I don’t know any 14-year-old who would just leave her dog,” said McDaniel, who was handing out fliers with Snider. “Please pray.”

‘Stunned and saddened’

Officials with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district said they are “stunned and saddened to learn” of Kaytlynn’s death. Counselors will be available Monday morning at Trinity High School for grieving students, and officials also suggested going to the National Association of School Psychologists for immediate assistance.

At a vigil Thursday night, about 100 of Kaytlynn’s teachers and classmates gathered outside Central Junior High. They sang “Amazing Grace,” but the crowd was mostly quiet, reflecting on their loss.

One of Kaytlynn’s teachers raved about her intelligence, and Kaytlynn’s friend Bayleigh Wagoner agreed.

“You could tell in class she was super smart,” Bayleigh said. “She’d always be the first one to answer a question.”

She was funny, too, said Bayleigh, who was in the school band with Kaytlynn. Bayleigh played clarinet; Kaytlynn played trumpet.

“She was this carefree girl,” Bayleigh said. “She could make you laugh whenever. If she saw that you were sad or if you didn’t have a smile on your face, she would start telling jokes just to make you smile.

“I just can’t believe this happened to her.”

The next cross?

It’s not known how Kaytlynn’s body ended up in the landfill, which is operated by Republic Services.

The city of Arlington and its residents are the primary users of the landfill, but Arlington contracts to receive waste from Mansfield, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, Southlake and Grapevine, as well as some commercial waste from Fort Worth, Irving and Dallas, said Susan Schrock, a city of Arlington spokeswoman.

The mountainous landfill is a landmark in north Arlington and sits across North Collins Street from the Viridian master-planned community and near the Texas Star Golf Course in Euless.

A memorial wreath was at the entrance of the landfill early Thursday, but it was not connected to Kaytlynn’s death. The wreath displays a ribbon with the name Constantino, presumably in memory of Constantino Quinones, a truck driver who was killed on June 21, 2016, in a multivehicle wreck near the entrance of the Arlington landfill.

Just to the west of the landfill, at 11271 Mosier Valley Road and Trinity Boulevard, sits Our Garden of Angels, a small plot filled with more than 125 white crosses to remember loved ones killed in violent crimes. The roadside memorial was founded in 2000 with a cross for Amy Robinson, a mentally challenged 19-year-old Arlington woman who was kidnapped, tortured and slain near the location in 1998.

A cross for Kaytlynn will likely be next.

Staff writers Domingo Ramirez, Jr., Deanna Boyd, Mitch Mitchell and Bill Hanna contributed to this story.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 3:46 PM with the headline "‘I just can’t believe this happened to her,’ Bedford teen’s friend says at vigil."