A 3-year-old girl found dead inside her home Sunday evening died as a result of multiple injuries stemming from child abuse, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Officers were called to a home on the 3300 block of North Natchez at about 8:30 Sunday evening and found Ashley Mendoza dead inside.
A Chicago Police Department spokesperson said a "person of interest" was being questioned in connection with Mendoza's death.
Ashley Padilla is among neighbors who are baffled by the turn of events.
"It's devastating. I have children of my own, a 4, 2 and 1 year old, so hearing that it happened downstairs is just horrific actually," Padilla said.
According to Padilla, an officer told her the victim's mother says someone broke into the home and she later discovered her daughter on the floor covered in blood.
It was not immediately known why police were called to the home, police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said, but investigators said they're treating the death as a homicide.
