A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder after the body of 13-year-old Layla Jeffery was found in bushland in Victoria.
Layla was last seen on McCracken Street in Donald – about 280km northwest of Melbourne – on Saturday July 4, and was reported missing the next day.
Police found remains believed to be of the missing girl on Thursday afternoon after a large-scale search around Donald for the teenager.
Victoria Police arrested the boy on Friday and confirmed he had been charged on Saturday afternoon, where he is due to face a children’s court.
Layla’s heartbroken family had earlier on Saturday spoken out about the grief that has consumed them since losing the teenager.
Her aunt, Kaitlyn Cheyne, told reporters Layla’s mother was ‘doing absolutely terribly’.
‘(Layla and her mum) just had a really good night together and they were happy and laughing, and it was just a really sweet night, and I’m really glad that that is her final memory with her,’ Cheyne said.
‘As hard as it is and as horrible as it is, we were somewhat prepared for this outcome. As much as we wanted her home, we were not naive.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder after the body of 13-year-old Layla Jeffery was found
‘I’m also very, very glad that while we were searching we were not the ones to find her because as much as we desperately wanted to, I’m just very, very glad we did not.’
Ms Cheyne said the teenager had left early in the morning of July 4 and left the light on as she was ‘planning to come back’.
‘That’s why we haven’t turned the lights off since, because we were hoping that she would just walk in the door, and apologise for scaring everyone,’ she said.
Her aunt described Layla as incredibly sweet and sensible, and was not the type to ‘do anything crazy’.
‘Anytime she would find anything she would buy the same thing for her best friend because she wanted them to match,’ she said.
‘She took a lot of pride in her appearance; she had a lot of awareness of her own value and her own beauty.’
A GoFundMe has been launched to support Layla’s family.
