Autopsy confirms Mashpee teen’s death as homicide

NEW BEDFORD, Mass (WLNE)– An autopsy has confirmed that a body found in Florida last month is that of missing Mashpee teenager Jalajhia Finklea.

A statement from the Bristol County District Attorney’s office said the Saint Lucie Medical Examiner’s office in Florida confirmed that “Finklea’s death was caused by two gunshot wounds and that the death was a homicide.”

Florida law enforcement officials, acting off information from Massachusetts State Police and New Bedford Police detectives, had discovered a deceased female body in a field near Route 95 in Fellsmere, Florida in late November.

Finklea had last seen getting into a rental car in New Bedford that investigators said had been rented to Luis Zaragoza at Logan Airport in Boston. Her cellphone was later found off Route 140 in New Bedford.

Zaragoza was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officials in Crestview, Florida on Nov. 5.

©WLNE-TV/ABC6 2020