ASBURY PARK - Twenty-six years after the shooting death of 12-year-old Quiana Dees, whose murder shocked the city and has continued to galvanize neighbors, police have charged a former city woman with the crime.

Kishia Jones, who was just 13 at the time of the slaying, has been arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter, according to sources close to the investigation.

Jones, now 40 and living in Henderson, North Carolina, will be extradited to New Jersey to face charges, the Press learned Thursday.

“We’re just elated that it’s over, for the most part," said Clifton Dees, 43, who was 17 when his sister was killed. "It’s bittersweet because my sister is no longer here and this person went on to live a life. I think about all the things I was robbed from. I’ll never have nephews and nieces from her."

The mystery over who killed Quiana Dees, a spunky girl who loved to bake cookies and spar with her brothers, baffled city residents and investigators for decades.

On May 1, 1992, Quiana Dees snuck out of her home in Asbury Park to go to a friend's party. The next day, she was found unconscious in a vacant wooded lot on Washington Avenue in Neptune with a gunshot wound to the head.

The following day, on May 3, she was declared dead.

The case had been kept alive by her mother, Penny Dees, who has organized a march every year in her daughter's memory, vowing to keep doing so until her daughter's killer was found.

Penny Dees, 60, was driving to the doctor’s office Wednesday when she got a call from authorities asking if she could meet them at a satellite office. They told her they had made an arrest.

“I was shocked and overwhelmed,” Penny Dees told the Press on Thursday. She said she always believed an arrest would come. She cherishes her daughter's memory.

“She liked playing with her dolls. She enjoyed baking," Penny Dees said of her daughter. "We were going to have a baking contest to see who was the best between her chocolate chip and my sugar cookies.”

She paused before adding: “But that never happened.”

Jones had long been a suspect in the slaying.

Asbury Park police confirmed to the Press in 2008 that Jones had come to the police station and asked to talk to detectives.

Contemporaneous police reports confirmed that Jones had been at the house party that night. Jones had also confessed to breaking into a home and stealing a gun with two other girls sometime before Quiana's death.

"No one considered that maybe I was the one to be killed," Jones told the Press in 2008. "Quiana and me were a lot alike. We were both beautiful inside. But she was pure. Now she's dead, and I'm a very angry girl."

Somebody overheard Jones making a cryptic statement — "I made Quiana into an angel" — at a beauty shop in 2007. The comment got around.

In a 2008 interview with the Press, Jones initially denied making the cryptic comment the year before, before adding: "I just meant that if she was an angel, she could come back and tell us what happened."

Police investigating the murder told the Press in 2008 that they lacked enough evidence to support an arrest. On Thursday, police would not say what had changed.

Clifton Dees said his mother will hold a final "victory" march in May.

"She sees it as an early Christmas present," he said.

MORE: Quiana Dees murder: A mother who never gave up hope

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office had made unsolved killings like Dees' a priority, with the creation of a cold case unit that has solved seven previously unsolved homicides in the last three years, officials said.

More:In 2008, this woman confessed to killing 12-year-old Quiana Dees

The court proceedings will be held in family court and heard as a juvenile delinquency complaint. Jones, who is being extradited to New Jersey from North Carolina to face the charge, could be sentenced to a maximum of four years in jail, according to the prosecutor's office.

Quiana Dees has three older brothers and one younger brother, Dewayne, Lamont, Clifton and Canaan.

"My mom was crushed," Clifton Dees told the Press. "She took it extra hard because she and my sister were very close, not to mention she was her only daughter."

'I'm not giving up': Cold case unit hunts Monmouth County killers

Clifton Dees said his family is relieved and grateful for the overwhelming support from the community, especially on Facebook. Many neighbors participated in the many marches held over the years.

"It still takes me a minute to bring myself to terms," he said. "It still bothers me to this day — it always has. Sometimes I see a picture of her and I automatically get visibly upset.”

"We all talked yesterday when we found out," Clifton Dees said. "We're a pretty close-knit family."

Angela Abhez-Anderson, president of the Asbury Park Board of Education, said the arrest will help bring healing and answers to the family. She said she was speaking out personally as a mother as she’s followed news reports of Quiana Dees' death through the years and attends church nearby where her body was found.

The killing shocked the community, she said.

“As a parent, I would want to know who came and took my child’s life. At least there’s some closure for her mom and her family," Abhez-Anderson said.

Asbury Park City Councilman Jesse Kendle said he was stunned by news of the arrest.

“I know it’s been really hard on her,” Kendle said, referring to Penny Dees. He said the arrest will help with closure. “It’s like an early Christmas gift."

He credited law enforcement for continuing to work on the cold case.

Anyone with information about the case should call Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Detective John Leibfried at 1-800-533-7443 or Neptune Township Police Detective Eric Chunn at 732-988-8000.

This is a breaking news story. Stay with app.com for the latest on Quiana Dees' murder case.

Kala Kachmar: @NewsQuip; 732-643-4061; kkachmar@gannettnj.com