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Twelve-year-old girl Jessica Maple solves crime police couldn't… and then confronts burglars herself

By Lena Sullivan / AP 08/20/2011 16:51:00

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Junior detective: Jessica Maple, 12, took it upon herself to investigate a break in at her late great-grandmother's house in Atlanta

Police detectives have been left red-faced after a 12-year-old solved a burglary case they could not after she found clues officers had missed.

Amateur sleuth Jessica Maple confronted the alleged burglars after she took it upon herself to investigate a break in at her late great-grandmother's house in Atlanta.

The aspiring detective said she wanted to use investigative skills she had learned on a Junior District Attorney camp this summer.

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Junior detective: Jessica Maple, 12, took it upon herself to investigate a break in at her late great-grandmother's house in Atlanta

Miss Maple showed she was more like Miss Marple after she asked her mother to take her to the house to see if she could find any clues.

Police had said that whoever robbed the house must have had a key as there were no signs of forced entry, but the curious 12-year-old found otherwise.

'I went to the side of the house and looked at the garage,' she told ABC News.

'The windows were broken. There were finger prints by the glass. Everything was ramshackled. There were clothes everywhere.'

Ransacked: Jessica Maple went to the burgled home to search for clues

Family: The home had been owned by Jessica's late great-grandmother

After finding crucial clues the police had missed, the girl visited a pawn shop down the road and found her great-grandmother's furniture on sale.

'They weren't thinking,' she said of the thieves. 'They put everything in the same shop.'

The manager of the shop gave the girl both men's picture identifications and she called the investigating officer to tell him she had solved the crime.

'He was like "You beat me to this stuff" and I was like, "I did your job again",' she said.

In an audacious move, the girl then went to one of the burglar's homes to confront him accompanied by her mother.

Training: Jessica Maple met TV host and former prosecutor Nancy Grace at the Junior District Attorney camp this summer in Atlanta

'We went up to him and I asked him why he did it,' Jessica said. 'At first he denied it, but then he confessed.'

Despite the evidence, no arrests have yet been made by police.

'They have all the evidence,' Jessica said. 'I have no idea what is taking so long.'

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Comments (1 posted)

snapdragon 08/22/2011 20:11:58

Good for you, young lady. Keep doing the policemen's job, and soon you'll be their supervisor.

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