Grandmother prays for justice after Henry teen's remains ID'd

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By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

On the night before her 15th birthday, Anastasia Hill sneaked out of her bedroom in Ellenwood, MP3 player in hand, never to be seen by her family again.

Channel 2 Action News, Channel 2 Action News Anastasia Hill died of blunt force trauma, according to the GBI's preliminary analysis.

Remains ID'd as missing teen

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She went to a friend's house roughly five miles away, hung out for awhile and then caught a ride from an unidentified motorist in an unidentified vehicle, according to Henry County police.

Only the driver of that car knows exactly what happened next.

Last week, DNA testing confirmed that human remains found in November 2010 belonged to Anastasia, missing since March 5, 2010.

Henry police said they had anticipated that result after matching the girl's dental records with the remains, discovered by a hunter on the banks of Big Cotton Indian Creek in Stockbridge, roughly 10 miles from Hill's home.

According to the GBI's preliminary analysis, the teen died of blunt force trauma.

The family had requested DNA testing because they weren't ready to believe the quiet girl who liked to read was dead, her grandmother told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"We just kept thinking she'd come home," said Valencia Hill, 54. The girl lived with her grandmother.

Hill said she knows her granddaughter wouldn't run away, though there had been some friction in the home because the eighth-grader had been seeing an older boy.

"She was not supposed to have any boyfriends that age. We didn't approve of that," Hill said, noting her daughter left without taking any clothes or her eyeglasses.

Police interviewed friends who saw Anastasia on March 5 and found no evidence of wrongdoing, said Henry police Detective Thomas Stott.

"The only thing they knew is that she left in a vehicle that had pulled up on the street outside the house," Stott told the AJC. "They didn't know who it was or where she was going."

Nor did they provide much of a description of the car, he said.

"At least I know where [Anastasia] is now," said her grandmother, who's been hospitalized twice for depression. "When she was missing, it was tougher."

Anastasia will be cremated, Hill said. Her body was too badly decomposed for a funeral, she said.

Though she prays for justice, Hill said she is skeptical she'll ever find out what happened to her granddaughter.

"No one seems to know anything, " she said, expressing frustration with how the police have handled the case.

Presently, 46 minor girls from Georgia are reported as missing -- some last seen as far back as the 1980s, according to the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Anyone with information about the Hill case is asked to contact Henry police at 770-288-8200.