Family members say that Rochester Police have arrested or detained a suspect in the murder of Jakarah Lopez-Moore. The 16-year-old girl went missing from her home on Weld Street, then weeks later her body was found, with signs she had been killed.

We are working to verify the arrest with RPD. The department has scheduled a press conference about the case for 1:30 p.m. today, Feb. 23.

Jakarah had just turned 16 in early August. She was Black, 5 feet 8 inches and 120 pounds. That is what the missing child poster would say when it went out to the world. Her eyes, brown. Her hair, black. Her mom said in a social media post that this height and weight was wrong and she was one inch taller and 30 pounds heavier.

“Her hair is in locs like the third picture (shows),” wrote her mother on Facebook. “It’s been 8 days! Bring my baby home!!”

Jakarah had a rose tattoo on the back of her left hand and “BRI” on her outer left forearm. She was outspoken and did what she wanted to do, said her mother, Christee Lopez.

Lopez and her daughter were both young, growing up together. Lopez had Jakarah when she was 16 years old, the same age as her daughter in the freeze frame on a Ring video that captured the teen arriving at the house that night in August for the last time.

Jakarah had been talking a lot lately about bettering her life, because she made some mistakes in her past and wanted to improve, Lopez said. She said had been talking about joining the Job Corps and becoming a registered nurse so she could go on to become a nurse practitioner.

Her disappearance and then discovered killing raised issues in the Rochester community about how much attention gets paid when Black children go missing and to questions about how responsive the police are. Her funeral at Miracle City was well attended. And local legislators urged the Governor to make changes, to do something.

Late in December, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation to establish a task force on missing girls and women who are Black, Indigenous or people of color in New York.

— Madison Scott is a recent college graduate who is an intern with the Democrat and Chronicle. She has an interest in how the system helps or doesn’t help families with missing loved ones. She can be reached at MDScott@gannett.com. Tell her if you have a good history book recommendation, especially about the Rochester region.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Jakarah Lopez-Moore: Missing teen killed. Family: Suspect now arrested