April 27, 200520 yr http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/27/teen.slain.ap/index.html Four charged after girl killed in 'excrutiating ordeal' Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Posted: 11:41 AM EDT (1541 GMT) PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A 15-year-old girl was stabbed, beaten, set on fire and thrown into a river, and four acquaintances were charged with murder, authorities said. The killers of Christine Marie Ham lured her to a small park behind a public housing complex in southwest Philadelphia on Saturday and attacked her, authorities said. Police said she was still alive when she was thrown into the Schuylkill River and managed to crawl out, but bled to death on the shore. "Her excruciating ordeal and pain lasted at least an hour and perhaps more," District Attorney Lynne Abraham said Tuesday. "This killing was planned and not spur of the moment." On Tuesday, Derrell Savage, 20; Demarcus Hamms, 19; Felicia Dawson, 19; and John Garrett, 17, were charged with murder, criminal conspiracy and weapons offenses. They were ordered held without bail until a hearing next Wednesday. The slaying apparently had something to do with another altercation, Homicide Capt. Richard Ross said. "There's no reason in the world for someone to die like that," Ross said. "There's nothing about the altercation that we know that would have caused it to rise to his level." Authorities said all four were acquaintances of Ham.
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