2 missing teen girls drowned in Mesa water basin, police say
MESA, Ariz. - The medical examiner has released the cause of death for two missing teenage girls whose bodies were found in a water retention basin near Superstition Springs Mall.
Officers were called to an area near Southern Avenue and the Roosevelt WCD Canal Road on Jan. 21 at around 6 p.m. after someone reported seeing a body in the water.
Police found the bodies of two girls: 17-year-old Sitlalli Avelar and 15-year-old Kamryn Meyers.
Avelar and Meyers had both been reported as runaways on Jan. 7 from a group home in Mesa, police said.
On March 14, Mesa Police said the medical examiner determined the girls' deaths were an accident. The primary cause of death for Avelar was "Drowning in the setting of Acute Alcohol Intoxication." Meyers died from "Drowning in the setting of Acute Alcohol Intoxication and Recent Marijuana Use."
"We welcome any information that could be useful in piecing together what the girls did in days prior to the discovery of their bodies, but right now, there is nothing to say foul play was a factor," Det. Brandi George said.