VALLEY SPRINGS, CA - For the first time in 15 days, Rippon Road is no longer guarded by deputy or CHP officer. Instead of law enforcement vehicles, only purple ribbons lined the street to remember the little girl who loved the color.

"Everybody speculates and everybody said this and that, but I just prayed," said Mary Gallagher, a friend of the Fowler grandparents.
"I prayed it wasn't him."

Saturday evening, Leila Fowler's 12 year-old brother was arrested on homicide charges in her stabbing death. The boy originally told deputies an intruder broke into the house and killed his sister. After a multi-agency manhunt and two thousand hours canvassing the neighborhood, the Sheriff announced the boy was no longer their only witness, but the person they believe responsible.

"The citizens of Calaveras County can sleep a little better tonight," said Sheriff Gary Kuntz at the Saturday evening press conference.

VALLEY SPRINGS, CA - The second witness in the investigation into the murder of an 8-year-old girl was deemed not credible by Calaveras County sheriff's detectives.

Leila Fowler was found stabbed in her family's Rippon Road home by her 12-year-old brother Saturday afternoon. The brother told deputies he called his parents after someone broke into the home. His parents called 911. The boy said after he called his parents he ran into another room where he found his sister Leila with severe injuries.

Leila was taken to a nearby hospital where she later died, the sheriff's department said. Her brother was not injured.

The boy vaguely described the intruder as white or Hispanic and said that he may have long, gray hair and a large frame. A second witness came forward and collaborated the brother's description on two separate occasions.

VALLEY SPRINGS, CA - Authorities search for a man wanted in connection to the death of a 9-year-old girl.

A homicide investigation is underway by the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office after a young girl was killed at a home on Rippon Road, the sheriff's office said.

Sheriff deputies responded to the home after a 12-year-old boy called his parents saying there was an intruder in the home. The parents called 911 and deputies responded to the call.

The boy, who was home alone with his 9-year-old sister, tells investigators that he then went into another room in the home where he discovered his sister with severe injuries.

The girl was transported to a hospital where she later died.  The boy was not injured.

Investigators have not released the type of injuries the girl sustained, but do say that it does not appear that she was shot.