JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police are continuing to hunt for the person responsible for dragging an 8-year-old girl into the woods near the Eagle Point Apartments near University Boulevard, and sexually assaulted her Monday evening.
A couple who is caring for that little girl's 6-year-old sister said that the victim remains in intensive care Wednesday after having to endure three hours of surgery.
"She was just overwhelmed, but overwhelmed is an understatement for what this little child just went through," Angela Laganelli, a family friend said of the girl's little sister.
According to the person who started a Go Fund Me account for the girl's medical expenses, she remains in intensive care "awaiting further examinations of her damaged eye, ear, throat and chest which was brutality inflicted during the rape."
Beaten, bloody and left for dead, Laganelli said the last 48 hours have changed the life of the 8-year-old girl forever.
"She put her arms around her mom and said she said, 'Mom, I'm so happy to be alive,'" Langanelli said.
Alive after being dragged into the woods by a man, beaten and raped so badly that she had to go through surgery that night. Angela and her husband Lawerence Laganelli said the girl remains in the hospital with her mother at her side.
"She can finally eat a very small amount but they just want to make sure her stomach can handle everything that she eats so she's eating very slowly," Angela Laganelli said.
Angela Langanelli described the horrific scene when she and her husband ran to the area where the little girl emerged from the woods, naked and alone.
"They found (bicycle) tire marks across her body. This man or this monster had run over her with tire marks on her body we believe in all of our hearts that he tried to kill her, so she wouldn't get up, so she wouldn't leave the area," Angela Langanelli said.
Even though her face was unrecognizable, Angela Langanelli said the girl was able to talk to her.
"I seen a little girl that was so grateful to be alive. All she kept saying as she was trying to hold her head up after everything she went through was, ‘I'm alive. Miss Angie I'm alive. Am I alive?' And I said, ‘Yes sweetheart, you are alive.' She said, ‘Thank you God.'"
Lawrence Laganelli said that the man who did this is a monster who has taken the innocence of a little girl who now has to live with this for the rest of her life.
"Now she's suffering from additional injuries that she incurred during the beating. Her eyes, her ears, her throat, her chest. What she went through and what she is going to go through for the rest of her life is it's going to be a story in itself," Lawrence Laganelli (pictured below) said.
A future that will now involve therapists and doctors who Lawrence Laganelli said will have to offer more than just a service.
"Care. Hopefully she's with healthcare people that have high emotional intelligence instead of high IQs. Because what's needed right now is high EQ," Lawrence Laganelli said.
The crime tape is gone behind the apartments between Merrill and Fort Caroline roads. Only of a handful of officers remain in the area.
Neighbors of the victim say she she was near the woods chasing some cats before the attack. Many parents in the area are still very much on edge since no arrest has been made, thinking the attacker could still be in the area.
"That's why I'm thinking he's from around here, because he knows what's going on at all times," concerned parent Gin Vancsek said.
The manager of the complex would not discuss the case and asked News4Jax to leave the property. People in the area want more security.
"I feel ... a need to have more officers out here on the property, surrounding these areas," Kelley Mangham said. "There is a lot of sex offenders in this neighborhood."
A quick search of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sexual offender database showed over 100 registered sexual offenders or predators within a 2 mile radius of the wooded area where the attack occurred about 6:40 p.m. Monday.
"Some days he might want to go outside, so I let them play in front of the house," parent Michelle Travalee said. "I just don't want him to go outside now."
"That's why I keep her so close to me. Everywhere, not just this neighborhood," Vancsek said. "I like this neighborhood. This is a pretty good neighborhood, except for that."
"I would, literally, move from out of here," Travalee said. "But you never know what can happen any day any way. We just don't go outside."
Some parents walk through the area with their own children a little closer to them. They are thinking about the 8-year-old victim and hoping she recovers quickly.
"I feel so bad for her and her parents," Vancsek said. "These little girls, they don't know. Boys, too."
Anyone with any information that could help police find the attacker is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.
Again, there is a Go Fund Me account setup where anyone who would like to can donate.
