(Aug. 27) -- Kansas police arrested 36-year-old Adam Longoria today in connection with the death of 14-year-old cheerleader Alicia DeBolt, whose charred body was found the day after she was supposed to begin her freshman year of high school this week.
Attorney General Stephen Six earlier in the day called Longoria a "person of interest" in the case, after issuing a statewide alert for his capture. Longoria is suspected of stealing a truck at the asphalt plant outside of Great Bend, Kan., where DeBolt's body was discovered Tuesday. He was being held on a warrant for a stolen vehicle, The Great Bend Tribune reported.
The brother of Longoria's girlfriend said Longoria worked at the asphalt plant, according to The Wichita Eagle.
Michael Brown said Longoria lived with his sister and her two children in Great Bend.
"She's heartbroken," Brown told The Eagle."She's torn between both ways - the loss of the DeBolt family and the thought that she was with this man."
DeBolt's mother last saw the teenager around 11 p.m. Saturday when the girl left for a party in Great Bend, with a 19-year-old man, according to The Associated Press. She was reported missing when she hadn't returned home by Sunday afternoon.
Local and state police also finished searching Longoria's home in Great Bend earlier this morning, according to The Great Bend Tribune.
The body was found Tuesday at the asphalt plant. It was badly burned, and authorities needed dental records to identify it.
Six told reporters Thursday that the case was being investigated as a homicide. "We do not, based on our preliminary work, believe it was a random act of violence," he said.
The girl's body was discovered the day after she was to begin classes as a freshman at Great Bend High in the city of about 15,000. She had just learned she made the freshman cheerleading squad, according to The Wichita Eagle.
Tiffany Serna, a lifelong resident of Great Bend and mother of a 15-year-old girl, said everyone was shocked by DeBolt's death.
"This is a town where everybody knows everybody, and everybody looks out for everybody," she told the Eagle. "For something to happen in a town like this ... it's just absolutely shocking."