LE absolutely believes this is a crime. They are withholding a lot of details...and I'm sure some of it is very disturbing.
The mayor spoke at the press conference. This is a large city. How often does a mayor of a major city speak at a press conference about the murder of one person. He even gave the victim's mother a call.
The mayor did admit that one of the reasons he came to the press conference was to push for greater funding for the the HPD and HFD. I'm also guessing that he knew that this case...a 12 year old girl, would likely get a lot of publicity.
Having said that he very likely is very upset about the murder. He mentioned his grandchildren a couple of times during the presser.
Another point, he said they wouldn't rest until they got all of the 'bad actors' associated with this crime arrested. It sounds like he believes there is more than one person involved.