Who Was Trinity Love Jones? 6 Details About The Girl Whose Body Was Found In A Duffel Bag
The suspect arrested for her murder is her mother's reported boyfriend.
Instagram Outside of Los Angeles, mourners gathered on Monday to honor the life of Trinity Love Jones. The young girl is a homicide victim, another name to the list of missing children found dead. The California Department of Justice reported that in 2018, 49 missing children in the state were found dead.
In the wake of Trinity’s death, the New York Times spoke to the founder of Justice for Murdered Children, a nonprofit based in Southern California with a mission to raise community awareness about young homicide victims. LaWanda Hawkins’s son Reginald was murdered at age 19 in 1995, and she never received any answers.
“We want the community as a whole to get more involved with these homicides,” she told the Times. “We have to hold them accountable. We thought the system would do it for us, but we have to take our own steps.”
Eliseo Montoya created a Facebook group, “Runaway and Missing Children in California,” after his teenage daughter ran away. She was eventually found safe. Montoya wants to bring light to the socioeconomic aspects of missing children. He believes “kids from the hood, like me” do not garner the same sense of urgency that missing children of more privileged backgrounds.
Trinity Love Jones gained attention nationwide from the grisly details of her death. Mourners expressed that sense of community Hawkins spoke of.
Marlene Contreras organized a vigil for Trinity last week. “It breaks my heart, it just breaks my heart,” she said. "When things like this happen, we need to come together and be a voice for this little girl, especially since she doesn't have a family, I think it's important that she's everybody's child."
Who was Trinity Love Jones? Six details about the girl and her murder are below.
1. She was 9 years old.
Trinity Love Jones was a nine-year-old girl. Her body was found on March 5. The L.A. County Attorney’s Office stated she was killed on or about March 1.
She was found in a pink long sleeve shirt that boasted “FUTURE HERO,” with the word Princess crossed out between the two, and gray pants with pandas printed on them.
Not much has been said about Trinity’s home life—her father declined to share details about his daughter’s living situation with CBS Los Angeles, under the claim that he did not want to say anything that could compromise the case.
2. She was found by L.A. County maintenance workers.
One of the workers told KTLA about their discovery of the body. The workers were trimming trees by a trail in Hacienda Heights, about 19 miles outside of Los Angeles. The worker, who did not want to be identified, said they saw a duffel bag at the bottom of an embankment.
"We seen the little girl's head, but at that point, we thought it was a little boy because you couldn't really see, like, everything," he told the outlet. "She was covered up with grass, like the bush was kind of covering her hair, and then she was wrapped up in a blanket, and she was stuffed in a duffel bag."
The emotional interview ended abruptly when the worker said the first thing he thought of when he saw Trinity was his own children. He said the girl looked as though she could be asleep when they found her, her face looked so peaceful.
Police said in a press conference that the discovery was made around 10:30 a.m. “Investigators believe that the victim was dumped at the location sometime during the late evening hours of Sunday, March 3,” Lt. Scott Hoglund said at the conference. “The victim was in fact found partially inside a black rollaway type duffel bag. The upper portion of the victim was protruding from that bag.”
3. Her mother’s boyfriend has been arrested.
Emiel Hunt, 38, the boyfriend of Trinity’s mother Taquesta Graham, was arrested for first-degree murder on Saturday, Mar. 9. He was found sleeping in his vehicle parked near the San Diego International Airport.
He is being held on a $2 million bond. He appeared in court on Tuesday but did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed: it will take place Apr. 16. If convicted, Hunt faces 50 years to life in prison.
Graham, Trinity’s mother, was also detained. She was a “person of interest” and was held on $2 million bail. The lead detective in the case, Marc Boivert, told KTLA Graham is in custody on a previous warrant unrelated to Trinity’s death.
4. Both Graham and Hunt have a criminal history.
Graham is listed on California’s sex offender registry. According to the Megan’s Law website, she was convicted in 2009 of enticing a minor female for prostitution.
Hunt has a prior conviction for child abuse in San Diego County against his own son in 2005. He served more than 10 years in prison.
5. Her father identified her body.
Trinity’s father, Antonio Jones, learned about his daughter’s death over a phone call. He identified her, and another family member matched her through a DNA test.
“She was just the best,” Jones said of his daughter shortly after news came out about her death, but before Hunt and Graham’s names were attached to the case. “Full of character, full of life, full of joy…”
6. Her father and his family want justice.
“...I just want answers. I just want justice,” Jones said. Then, Hunt and Graham were named in the case.
When Hunt appeared in court on Tuesday, Jones stood up. “You killed my daughter!” he screamed at Hunt. He cried throughout the hearing.
Barbara Jones, Trinity’s grandmother, spoke of her anger outside of the courthouse.
“I felt like a monster, like I wanted to do to him what he did to her, or what is alleged he did to her,” she told reporters.
Most of all, however, the family is focused on the life they lost. “She’s an angel now,” Jones said, after telling the press he wanted to focus on his daughter and grieve her loss. “Trinity’s happy, she’s in a better place.”
Alison Cerri is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture and relationship topics.