EDNA, Texas — Cheerleaders and locals alike lined Main Street on Thursday afternoon to send off the Edna High School Cowboys to Cypress for a semifinal football game.
"Hopefully to bring home that trophy,” one fan said.
Many will wear purple, along with blue, in memory of 16-year-old Lizbeth Medina.
She's a cheerleader who won't be making the trip.
"She wanted so much to go to that game,” her mother, Jacqueline Medina, said. "It still feels like a nightmare.”
Jacqueline said she found her daughter Tuesday in a bathtub inside their unit at the Cottonwood Apartments.
She was the victim, according to Edna police, of a capital murder although the exact cause of death has yet to be released.
“I’m lost for words, I don’t know where to begin," Jacqueline said. "I just know a mother should never go through what I went through and how I seen my baby."
She said her only child, known to family and friends as “Lizo,” was a funny girl with a great heart who was focused, like many in recent days, on high school football.
"She said. ''We’re going to get to the finals this year, mom.' And I said, 'Wow,'” Jacqueline said. "And she was happy."
Now, there’s a cloud over the small town even as there’s also something to celebrate.
“I won’t have peace within my heart or my mind until these people or whoever did it is put away,” Jacqueline said.
The Edna Police Department contacted the Texas Rangers to assist with the investigation. No information regarding a possible suspect or motive has been shared.