Family searches for answers after girl, 15, dies in San Francisco driveway
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A 15-year-old Bay Point girl died in the driveway of a stranger’s San Francisco home while people walked by without stopping to help or check on her, according to family members.
Jazmin Pellegrini ran away from her family’s Bay Point home in Contra Costa County on April 17 without a phone or money, the girl’s aunt, Ametiszt Hajdu, said. Her loved ones frantically searched for Jazmin and alerted law enforcement that the juvenile was missing.
Just three days later, on April 20, Jazmin was found deceased in San Francisco, the city’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office told KRON4. The medical examiner did not release her cause of death.
San Francisco police officers said a body was found on Lobos Street just before noon. Her grieving family is now left searching for answers. Was she with anyone in the city? Why did she go there? Why did she die?
A GoFundMe page created by her family states, “Jázmin Pellegrini was a beautiful loving enthusiastic 15 year old. The exact cause of her death is still unclear, along with the events leading up to it. Her family does not know who she was with, how she got there, what she was doing, nor why her body was left alone to decompose in the street. People walked past this teenage girls body and ignored it, assuming it is a passed out homeless person. One man stopped to call the paramedics, she was revived once and then returned to flatline.”
Her mother, Márta Bárány, said she wants to find the person responsible for “this heinous act. We miss her so much and would do anything to find whoever did such a horrible thing to her.”
According to Hajdu, the medical examiner said Jazmin did not have any physical injuries, and no foul play is suspected in her death. When her body was found by the first firefighters on scene, however, the teen’s shirt and bra were missing. “A 15-year-old girl is not going to take her shirt off and walk around like that,” Jazmin’s aunt told KRON4.
An autopsy report determining cause of death will not be completed for three months. “In the meantime, we are sitting here not knowing what happened to her,” the aunt told KRON4.
The GoFundMe page states, “This poor child was abandoned by whoever she was with, and left to die. She could have been saved, but strangers ignored her. A tragedy so unreal and impossible to comprehend. This injustice cannot be accepted. The truth must come out.”
Jazmin’s loved ones posted fliers in the neighborhood asking for potential witnesses to come forward with information or surveillance videos around Lobos Street and Plymouth Avenue. They also posted the flier on social media hoping to get the word out.
One man who saw the poster called and said he thinks he saw Jazmin riding on a BART train from Bay Point to San Francisco before she exited at the Powell Street station on the morning of April 18.
Jazmin had short dark hair and facial piercings. She spent several months within the past two years in hospitals, her aunt said. The 15-year-old girl struggled with bipolar disorder, anxiety, and PTSD, the GoFundMe page states.
Hajdu told KRON4, “Her mom tried everything in her power to keep her safe. Everything she did was for Jazmin.”
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The girl was released from a Contra Costa County hospital’s psychiatric unit in Martinez on the night of April 17. Her mother urged the hospital to keep her daughter longer so she was in a safe place with health professionals and security, but the staff refused, according to Jazmin’s aunt.
Hajdu said, “Her mom knew she wasn’t well, she could always tell just by looking in her eyes. When they took her home, she wasn’t talking, wasn’t smiling, and had a blank stare. She was not OK.”
Just hours after returning home, Jazmin ran away. Her concerned family members immediately alerted the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office and drove around for hours trying to find her.
“Everyone started driving around, my sister was searching for her until 3:30 in the morning. She thought the police officers would continue to search for her and open a missing person police case. They did not,” the aunt said.
As the family continues waiting and hoping for more answers, Hajdu said, “Please keep your kids safe. We gotta watch out for our babies.”
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