A girl of 16 who died after being found unconscious in the street was stabbed in the back, it emerged today.
Police were called just before 6am on Saturday to reports of a young woman being found unresponsive in the quiet Austhorpe suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire.
She had suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment, but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
Today neighbour Wayne Mallows described how he and other residents tried to save the ‘lifeless’ girl, who was named locally as Chloe Watson.
The 64-year-old told the Daily Mail he performed CPR on the teenager on the pavement close to his home.
‘I was called out of the house about 5.50am on Saturday morning by a dog walker,’ he said.
‘She said that my neighbour was outside doing CPR on a young girl. He was getting tired.
‘I asked if they’d rung an ambulance and then I realised that a phone was on the ground and he had it on loudspeaker. Ambulance control were giving him instructions.
‘I took over until the ambulance arrived 10 minutes later. She had been stabbed in the back and there was quite a bit of blood. Her eyes were just blank.’
Chloe did not live locally but was from Cleckheaton, around 13 miles from the scene, according to police.
A man who answered the door at Chloe’s mother’s home was too upset to comment. Several floral tributes and cards had been left outside.
Tonight, on a fundraising page set up by her cousin, Shantelle, it was claimed that Chloe’s ‘whole life was taken in a flash over a boy.’
’16 years young (she) didn’t even make it to her 18th,’ Shantelle said.
‘Her mum is distraught, she has left two younger siblings behind…she didn’t deserve this. She was so full of life, such an innocent beautiful soul taken too soon.’
Four teenagers – two girls aged 18 and two boys aged 17 and 19 – were arrested on suspicion of the murder of the youngster and are being questioned by officers.
On Saturday, police appealed for information to identify the green-eyed girl with fixed braces on her teeth, but today announced she had been ‘positively identified’ and that her family were being supported by specially trained officers.
Mr Mallows said he was struggling to get the image of the girl’s face out of his mind.
‘When the ambulance arrived around 6am the paramedics got all the kit out and tried to reactive the heart and they were doing chest compressions,’ he added.
‘They did that for about five minutes and then got her into the ambulance. Police were arriving all the time.
‘In my mind I have a picture of her face.
‘To me she looked very young, younger than 16.’
He added that she was wearing a ‘blouse with a little beige coat over it, and a dress and she had thick socks on’.
Kennerleigh Avenue, in the Austhorpe suburb of the city, where Chloe was found, consists mainly of old folks’ bungalows, and is usually very quiet, Mr Mallows said.
‘It is mostly elderly people in the bungalows, they come here to retire,’ he added.
Extensive tributes to the youngster were posted online on Facebook and TikTok.
One read: ‘Rest in eternal peace beautiful girl, u (sic) was loved by many and gunna be missed forever.’
Another wrote: ‘Your bubbly personality, your weird laugh, your cringy jokes will forever be unmatched. You always made sure everyone was feeling litty and loved…it’s truly devastating.’
Detective Chief Superintendent Marc Bowes, who is leading the murder hunt for West Yorkshire Police, appealed for anyone who was in the area and witnessed what happened to come forward.
‘This is an extremely complex investigation where a young woman has sadly lost her life,’ he said.
‘We are treating her death as murder and have arrested four people in connection with it.
‘I am also keen to speak to anyone who was in the Kennerleigh Avenue area in the early hours of this morning, or anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in the vicinity.’
