Texas high school student, 17, is found naked and strangled in ditch just an hour after frantic family reported her missing when she failed to return home from 'walk with male neighbor'

A 17-year-old high school student from Texas was found naked and strangled to death in a ditch - just an hour after she was reported missing. 

Kaitlin Hernandez's family said she had gone for a walk with a male friend from her neighborhood in Northeast side of town but did not return home. 

He reportedly told them he did not know where she was and her frantic loved ones reported her missing on Tuesday night at around 11.30pm. 

An unidentified man found her cell phone in a ditch and gave it to the police. 

Officers from the San Antonio Police Department then found the missing woman's jacket and later her nude body under a bridge in a drainage ditch on Oak Dell Drive around half a mile from her home at about 12.30am on Wednesday morning.

Kaitlan Hernandez, 17, was found naked and strangled to death in a ditch just an hour after she was reported missing by her family

Officers from the San Antonio Police Department found the missing woman's jacket and later her nude body under a bridge in a drainage ditch on Oak Dell Drive. A cross (pictured) was placed at the site where the murder took place 

Katilin's devastated aunt, Crystal Rodriguez wept as she said: 'She wanted to become a veterinarian. Y'all took her from us too soon. Seventeen years old'

Police said her body showed visible signs of trauma. The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office later confirmed that the young woman had been strangled, KHOU11 News reported. 

Police said the case, which started as a missing person, is now being treated as a homicide.

San Antonio Police Department released pictures of an unknown man asking the public for help identifying 'this person of interest'. 

A SAPD spokesperson Ximena Alvarez told DailyMail.com on Friday morning that a person of interest, who has not been named, has now been identified and is cooperating with the investigation.

No arrests have been made at this time and the investigation is ongoing, the spokesperson added.

Hernandez was a senior at Roosevelt High School, and set to graduate in May. 

Her devastated family said she had dreams of becoming a veterinarian. 

Katilin's distraught mother Angie Hernandez said: 'We need to find out who did this because she didn't deserve this. To be left there like an animal is very ugly and cruel and I don't know what this person was thinking. Why they targeted her. I don't understand.' 

In a heart-wrenching interview with KSAT News on Thursday, Kaitlin's aunt Crystal Rodriguez said: 'She wanted to become a veterinarian. Y'all took her from us too soon. Seventeen years old.'

'And now her little sisters, they no longer have time with her,' she said through tears.

Rodriguez described her niece as ' funny, always making other people laugh.' Hernandez was also remembered as a devoted big sister to her younger siblings

Kaitlin pictured at a bowling alley with her loved ones 

Officers are pictured searching for the young woman after her family reported her missing 

The woman's body was discovered in the drainage ditch under a bridge early Wednesday morning 

Rodriguez pleaded: 'I am begging you please ... please somebody speak up ... somebody say something.' 

She told the news outlet the family is in a state of shock: 'We're barely holding up. We're taking life right now one minute at a time.'

The aunt has also created a GoFundMe to help raise money for her niece's funeral where she explained the grieving family had lost her sister only four months earlier.

'Now they're together in heaven,' she said.

As of Friday morning more than $6,000 has been raised towards their goal of $10,000.

Rodriguez described her niece as 'funny, always making other people laugh.'

Hernandez was also remembered as a devoted big sister to her younger siblings. 

'She loved her family so much and we loved her. She loved her dogs, she always slept with them,' she said. We miss her dearly.'

She also shared that love for animals and had four dogs of her own and her aunt recalled how she always fed the stray animals in the neighborhood, KSAT News reported. 

Kaitlin pictured with her family over the Christmas holidays

A vigil will be held at 6pm on Friday at 118 Ashland Drive. The family said there will be a pastor leading the service, and friends and family of the young woman will have an opportunity to speak. 

At the memorial, they will go to a bridge where Hernandez was found and play music in her memory.