Medical examiner: Missing Katy teenager was shot to death

Adriana Coronado Cavazos vanished after her father was found dead earlier this week. Adriana Coronado Cavazos vanished after her father was found dead earlier this week. Photo: Condado De Walker Photo: Condado De Walker Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Medical examiner: Missing Katy teenager was shot to death 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Missing Katy teenager Adriana Coronado was shot to death, according to Harris County medical examiners.

Coronado's decomposed body was discovered earlier this week in a grassy field in west Houston, near Mayfield and Mapleton Drive. The ninth-grader's cause of death was listed as "multiple gunshot wounds," according to Harris County Institute of Forensic Science records.

The investigation into the homicide continues. Her full name was listed by police as Adriana Coronado Cavazos.

FBI investigators had joined the search for Coronado who went missing last weekend as her father was found dead in an apparent homicide. Investigators believe the girl may have been with her father at the time of his death.

Amber Alert

Adriana Coronado was last seen about 1 a.m. last Saturday, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Her father, Caesar Vladimir Coronado, was found dead, his body burned, about 12 p.m. Sunday in Walker County, said authorities with the Walker County Sheriff's Office. Investigators came across information at 1:30 a.m. Monday that led them to believe Adriana may have been with her father at the time he died, prompting them to issue an Amber Alert early Monday.

More information: Father of missing 14-year-old girl found dead

Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae said he got a call around 7:20 Friday night from the medical examiner's office with the confirmation of Coronado's body having been identified.

Police said the identity was determined to be that of Adriana Coronado through fingerprint verification by the medical examiner.

Earlier, a woman living in the home behind which the body was found said she and her gardener discovered it because of the smell.

The woman, who gave her name only as Gwen for privacy, said she was afraid it might be a dog.

"It was not," she said. "It was a young woman."

Treated 'like trash'

The 60-year-old resident said pajamas and slippers still clothed the body, which had been dragged into the bushes on a grassy lot where power lines run behind her house. An orange sign posted there warns of buried cable.

Upon seeing the body, she said she thought about how the deceased woman was someone's daughter and, perhaps, someone's sister, "that somebody threw out there like trash," she recalled Friday.

Then, walking to the front door of her one-story, white-paneled home, she picked up a Doritos bag and empty Bud Light bottle from under a plant lining the roadway, which someone had dropped nearby in much the same way.

The situation was upsetting, she said, and difficult to understand.

She added, "I hope they find out who she is."

Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

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