Investigators discovered that Anna Palmer was stabbed several times in the throat and had been sexually assaulted. They interviewed Loxane Konesavanh, the friend Anna was with that afternoon. When it was time for Palmer to go home, the girls headed to the corner of a street where they typically went their separate ways to go home. Konesavanh said that she noticed a man following them, and she told her friend to let the man pass, per Deseret News. The girls stopped, and Palmer told her friend to run home.

A 14-year-old girl named Amie Johnson witnessed the two girls walking home that day, and she told detectives that she saw a man following Palmer. Despite all the information, there was little evidence and authorities had only a few details to work with. As reported by Medium, an $11,000 (about $19,400 in today’s money) reward was offered in hopes that the public could provide information that would lead to the person responsible for the little girl’s death. Even then, no arrests were made, and the case went cold.