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Dominique Allen's Family, Cops Believe Death Was 'Random Act'

A 15-year-old Indianapolis girl whose body was found burned in a yard over the weekend was killed in a "random act," family and police said Tuesday.
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A 15-year-old Indianapolis girl whose body was found burned in a yard over the weekend was killed in a "random act," her family and police said on Tuesday.

Dominique Allen was last seen sitting on her sister's porch at about 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, and her charred body was found in the yard of a man walking his dog at about 12:30 p.m. later that day. On Tuesday afternoon, detectives say, the girl's purse and shoes were found in the backyard of an abandoned home about a block away. Police believe she was killed in that home.

"This is a careless, random act ... it has nothing to do with our sister at all," Mareeka Allen, whom Dominique was staying with, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Indianapolis Metro Police Detective Marcus Kennedy agreed, saying, "At this time we do believe it is random." He also noted that the "autopsy showed there was no soot in the lungs so she was not alive when she was set on fire, which is some comfort to the family." Officials said Allen was killed by strangulation. "We’re asking for any help from the public that might have seen this young girl, wearing those clothes, somebody with her, we’re just looking for anything," Kennedy said.

Another sister, Shenika Poindexter, made a tearful plea for the culprit or culprits to turn themselves in. "Whatever you do wherever you go, justice is going to be served — in this life or the next. I don’t care, they will hunt you until you die," she said.

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— Hasani Gittens