Anna Hurd, 16, allegedly murdered by boyfriend after she started texting another boy

Hurd (pictured at bottom with her boyfriend) was found dead five blocks from her home.

Early on the morning of February 23, 16-year-old Anna Hurd's body was found in Hillside Park in Maplewood. She had been stabbed to death. After days of investigating, authorities late last week arrested Anna's boyfriend, 17-year-old Anthony Mitchell, in connection with her murder.

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Mitchell hasn't yet been charged, and today Ramsey County prosecutors asked for a 24-hour extension which would give them until tomorrow to file charges. In an interview with Fox 9 conducted the day after Hurd's body was found, Mitchell tearfully denied he had anything to do with his girlfriend's murder.

But in an interview with the Pioneer Press, Anna's father, Patrick Hurd, said his daughter was considering a move to live with her mother in Texas, and she had recently been texting a boy down there. Patrick said Anna's communication with the boy in Texas "pushed" Mitchell "over the edge."

More from the Star Tribune:

Madison Marfell, 15, a friend of Anna's, [said last Friday] that when Anna's dad suggested to police that the boyfriend had been the one arrested, they didn't deny his assertion.

"Me and Anna, we were really close," Marfell said. "We were like sisters."

She said she heard from several people that Anna had been at a house party with her boyfriend Friday night and that on the way home they got into an argument. The argument centered around a planned trip to Texas, she said.

Marfell described Anna's boyfriend as clingy. "He got jealous of me and Anna and our relationship," she said.

She said the boy attended a memorial service for Anna [last] Thursday at St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church in North St. Paul. The church is across the street from North High School, the school that Hurd once attended.

"I told him that if he did this, he was going to go to hell," she said, which caused him to cry.

But Patrick Hurd told the PiPress that he thought of Mitchell as "a pretty decent young man."

"Anna trusted him with her life. She said so. I said, 'Anna, who's got your back?' And she said [her boyfriend]," Patrick said. "When I said, 'Anna, who's got your back?' I was praying she would say, 'You do, Dad,' but I didn't get that.'"

Anna played volleyball and basketball at North St. Paul High School.