Dallas police confirmed Tuesday that the teenager found dead in a southeast Dallas creek Sunday morning is Mikayla Mitchell, the 17-year-old stepdaughter of Howard Diamond, a Sherman doctor whom federal prosecutors recently connected to seven overdose.
Police found Mitchell in a creek near the 3000 block of Rochester Street just before noon Sunday. She'd been murdered and dumped there, according to DPD. Beyond Mitchell's name, police haven't released additional details about the crime, and they are still hoping to get information from the public.
A federal grand jury indicted Diamond on drug conspiracy charges July 6. He was arrested July 11 and made an appearance before a federal judge later that day. He's being held in Fannin County Jail.
Prosecutors allege that Diamond wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxymorphine, methadone, fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, alprazolam and zolpidem without a legitimate medical purpose, resulting in the deaths of seven of his patients between 2012 and 2016. Diamond wrote the prescriptions, according to federal court documents, in order to get Medicare reimbursements to which he wouldn't have been otherwise entitled.
On Friday, his wife, Jennifer Diamond, who did not respond to request for an interview for this story, took to Facebook to blast WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reporter Tanya Eiserer for her coverage of Howard Diamond's arrest, claiming that Eiserer failed to report any of the positive testimonials she'd been given by Howard Diamond's patients.
"Why do you only report toxic things to hurt people????," Diamond wrote. "You've certainly been told plenty of good, positive things from them!!!! How can Anyone trust what they hear on the news?"