On the evening of Sunday, May 11, 2008, thirteen-year-old Stevona Campbell was enjoying Mother's Day festivities at her family's apartment in east Palmdale, California. Affectionately known to her family and friends as Teeny—a moniker given at birth because of her delicate frame—the eighth-grade student was recognized as an outgoing, spirited presence. Two years earlier, Stevona and her mother had moved to the Antelope Valley desert community from Compton, seeking a peaceful environment away from street violence and gang activity that had impacted relatives in urban Los Angeles County.
Around 7:00 p.m. that Sunday evening, Stevona stepped outside of the family apartment despite instructions to remain at home. Her mother, Pamela Brown, began calling for the children about an hour later, only to find that Stevona had disappeared. Although Stevona had slipped away on rare occasions in the past, she had always returned within a few hours. When the hours passed into late night without any word, her family immediately grew concerned that she had been lured into harm's way.
The following morning, Monday, May 12, 2008, around 6:45 a.m., an agricultural worker arrived to tend crops near an onion field located along Avenue P, between 40th Street East and 50th Street East. Across the two-lane roadway from desert brush and cactus, approximately a mile from an unfinished commercial development, the farmworker noticed an abandoned rug discarded in a roadside drainage ditch. When the rug was examined, it concealed the lifeless body of young Stevona. Arriving Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and officially confirmed the death was a homicide. However, investigators and coroner officials declined to publicly release the specific cause or manner of death. Stevona was a popular student at Cactus Middle School in east Palmdale, where school district officials brought in grief counselors to support classmates grappling with the devastating news. Her peers and community members rallied together in the days that followed, organizing a car wash at the school to help her grieving family raise money for her funeral.
Detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau launched an extensive investigation into the middle schooler's contacts and movements on Mother's Day night. Her family publicly expressed their belief that she had gone to meet acquaintance peers who took advantage of her vulnerability and killed her. Despite multiple public pleas for community tips and interviews conducted by investigators, authorities were unable to identify any publicly named suspects or make an arrest.
More than a decade and a half later, the killing of Stevona Campbell remains unsolved. No suspects have ever been charged in connection with her death or the concealment of her body in the Antelope Valley field. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau continues to maintain jurisdiction over the open cold case, urging anyone with details regarding Stevona's disappearance or those who disposed of her remains to contact detectives at 890-5500.
