Child Found Dead

Girl Discovered Inside Abandoned House

Benton County Coroner’s office employees prepare to remove the body of a 6-year-old girl Tuesday near her home. Police found the body during a search after the girl was reported missing Tuesday morning.
Benton County Coroner’s office employees prepare to remove the body of a 6-year-old girl Tuesday near her home. Police found the body during a search after the girl was reported missing Tuesday morning.

— Family members and strangers gathered Tuesday night to mourn a 6-year-old girl whose body was found that morning minutes after she was reported missing from her home.

Update

A new story about the homicide investigation is available.

photo

Mike Bridgeman, left, uncle of Jersey Bridgeman, kisses Laurie Caancan on the top of the head Tuesday during a candlelight vigil at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Benton County’s Memory Garden in Little Flock.

Although police wouldn’t identify the victim, Thomas and Mike Bridgeman, uncles of the girl, said following the candlelight vigil she was Jersey Bridgeman.

“I don’t see how someone would do that to her,” Mike Bridgeman said. “She is innocent.”

At A Glance

City Homicide

Today’s investigation is the second time in a little more than a year police have investigated a homicide in the area. Huong Thi Truong was arrested in connection with the shooting death of a man at her residence at 506 S.E. Seventh St. She was sent to the Arkansas State Hospital in an attempt to make her fit for trial.

Source: Staff Report

704, 702 and 608 S.E. A St.

Jersey Bridgeman lived at 608 S.E. A St. Her body was found at 704 S.E. A St. The man accused of killing her lived at 702 S.E. A St.


View 704 SE A St in a larger map

The girl’s body was found at 704 S.E. A St. — two houses south of her home. Utilities at 704 S.E. A St. hadn’t been active since 2010, records show.

A Children’s Advocacy Center news release said the child was found dead in an abandoned home and the case was being investigated as an abduction and homicide.

Thomas Bridgeman talked with family and friends following the vigil held at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Benton County in Little Flock. His eyes filled with tears.

“Jersey was amazing,” Bridgeman said. “She was all-around a sweetheart.”

The girl was reported missing at 6:48 a.m.

"Very shortly ... within minutes of the phone call,” Police Chief Jon Simpson said when asked how long it took for officers to find the girl’s body.

Simpson didn’t say who made the call to police, but said the caller’s reaction was consistent with someone finding their child missing. Simpson said he couldn’t discuss any details related to the telephone call.

Simpson also wouldn’t discuss the cause of death.

Jersey lived at 608 S.E. A St. Utility records for the home returned to Desarae Bridgeman. A birth announcement in the Benton County Daily Record listed the birth of Jersey Dianne Bridgeman on Nov. 14, 2006, to Desarae and David Bridgeman. Desarae Bridgeman’s Facebook page mentioned her daughter, Jersey.

Desarae Bridgeman is the ex-wife of David Bridgeman, according to Benton County divorce records. David Bridgeman is serving an 18-year prison sentence for chaining a then-5-year-old girl to a dresser last year. The girl was listed only by the initials J.B. in the arrest affidavit.

Family friend and neighbor Erin Mattingly said she attended Jersey’s birthday party last weekend.

“She was a sweet girl,” Mattingly said as tears formed in her eyes. “She was such a pretty girl.

“It hurt. It broke my heart. It freaks me out. Bentonville is safe. I don’t understand how something like this happened here.”

The girl’s body has been sent to the Arkansas Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy.

The Child Abduction Response Team, a multiagency group with special training, will help with the investigation, Simpson said. Rogers police officers assisted with the investigation. Capt. Hayes Minor, who heads Rogers’ criminal investigation division, declined to comment about the investigation. Rogers police investigated David Bridgeman’s criminal case.

Brad Brown, who lives at 204 S.E. Sixth St., said he was shocked to see the numerous police cars in his neighborhood. Brown has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years.

He didn’t know the girl or her family, but said his neighbors knew the family.

“I feel bad for the family that it happened,” Brown said. “It’s just scary to think this happened in your backyard.”

Brown described the neighborhood as a normal one with kids playing outside.

The homes at 704, 702, 608 and 606 E. A Street are all owned by William R. Wallace and Supha Xayprasith Vandiver, according to the city’s GIS map. Vandiver was reached at her home in New York on Tuesday afternoon and said she had just been made aware of the investigation. She didn’t wish to comment on the residents who lived there. She said she and her husband, a lawyer in New York, own several properties in Arkansas.

More than 100 people held candles in remembrance of the girl during the vigil held Tuesday. A statue of a girl holding a blanket and a rose sat in front of the group as a symbol of Jersey’s innocence.

The memorial was held in the memory garden on the advocacy center grounds. Jersey’s statue was the 11th added to the garden. Each statue represents the death of a child from abuse in Benton County since 2000.

“There is no comfort tonight in the events of today,” David Engle, executive director of restoration ministries, said during the memorial. “The joy of our heart has ceased, our dancing has turned to mourning.”

Seven balloons were released following the vigil. Six for the years Jersey was alive and one more for her to grow on, Beverly Engle, director of the advocacy center.

Upcoming Events