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Her closest friends are stricken by teen's death

BY LAURA LIERA Californian staff writer
Monday, Jun 17 2013 06:33 PM

With a hair brush in hand, 18-year-old Mia Ramirez would sing her lungs out to her favorite Miley Cyrus song, "The Climb." She wouldn't care who was around. She would just sing loudly, giving her listeners goosebumps.

The spur-of-the-moment songs sung by her are no longer heard. Her voice now only lives in the memories of her family and friends. The thought that she no longer alive still shocks those who knew her.

"I can still picture her with my daughters, singing and dancing to the radio, just having the time of their lives," Celia Helms, a close family friend, said Monday as she fought tears at a car wash at Higher Ground Church to raise funds for Ramirez's funeral.

Ramirez's body was found June 11 in a southeast Bakersfield garage after Kern County Sheriff deputies received a call from the neighborhood reporting a foul odor.

Twenty-year-old Eddie David Rivas was arrested on suspicion of homicide in connection with her death, deputies reported. He is being held without bail in county jail on a felony count of violating felony parole, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office website. He has not been charged in Ramirez's death.

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