WA - Daytona Hudgins, 19, homeless, found strangled, Vancouver, 19 July 2014

Daytona Hudgins, 19, was strangled, the medical examiner said Tuesday. Her body was found on the morning of July 19 behind a cellphone repair business in the Rose Village neighborhood. Police were called to the 2800 block of Fort Vancouver Way, just south of East 29th Street, around 2:30 a.m. that day to investigate her death.

Detectives say she was homeless at the time of her death, according to Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp.

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The last time she was seen alive by a friend was on June 16th near Hudson's Bay High School.

She was reported missing when she was a minor back in 2011, and eventually became a transient, police said.

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A murder suspect accused of strangling a 19-year-old in Vancouver pleaded not guilty in court Friday.

Gregory Wright, 34, appeared for a formal arraignment Friday on the charge of second-degree murder...

Detectives submitted clothing Daytona was wearing to the Washington State Patrol DNA Laboratory for examination. Court documents state a DNA profile was obtained from the samples and Wright was a match...

Court records show that Wright has a long, violent criminal history including arrests for third-degree child rape in 2006 and failing to register as a sex offender multiple times.

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A violent felon accused of strangling a 19-year-old woman at a Vancouver homeless camp has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Gregory Antonio Wright, 37, entered an Alford plea Tuesday to first-degree manslaughter in Clark County Superior Court. He was previously charged with second-degree murder in the July 2014 death of Daytona Hudgins. An Alford plea allows a defendant to argue his innocence but admit there’s enough evidence that he could be found guilty.

Wright has denied strangling Hudgins. His defense attorney, Louis Byrd Jr., presented a report from an expert witness asserting that she died of a drug overdose.

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A violent felon who police believe fatally strangled a 19-year-old woman at a Vancouver homeless camp in 2014 was sentenced Thursday in Clark County Superior Court to 21 years and nine months in prison.

Gregory Antonio Wright’s sentence will run concurrent with a previous kidnapping and assault conviction, however, meaning he will actually serve just more than six years for the killing.

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Hudgins’ mother, Indy Rice, attended the sentencing and submitted a statement to the court. But she declined to read it aloud.

“I would love to, but I don’t think I can,” Rice said through sobs from the gallery.

Judge Scott Collier told Rice that he understands no sentence he imposes will bring back her daughter, “but hopefully it will bring some closure.”

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