Teenager 'uses her final moments to identify her killers' after she was brutally stabbed

Authorities in California have identified two murder suspects they say were identified by the victim in her final hours alive. 19-year-old Lizette Andrea Cuesta was left for dead with multiple stab wounds by the side of a road in rural Livermore in the early hours of Monday 12 February.

Alameda County Sheriff's Office said at the time that they responded to a 911 call about an injured woman around 2am, finding Cuesta with "life threatening stab wounds and other injuries".

Although authorities flew Cuesta to Eden Hospital Trauma, she was pronounced dead at 4.30am.

The sheriff's office said that Cuesta was able to provide "pertinent information about her attackers" before she passed away.

19-year-old Daniel Gross and 25-year-old Melissa Leonardo, both of Modesto, were arrested as homicide suspects and are being held in Santa Rita Jail.

Alamada County Sgt. Ray Kelly told the San Francisco Chronicle that the people who found Cuesta thought she was missing an arm but that she was not, though they think she had been attempting to "crawl out to the roadway to get help".

"This young woman clung to life when she was left for dead and was able to live for another couple hours and get us that information. Ultimately that led us to these arrests," Kelly told the paper, also saying that he was only aware of a couple of other instances where the agency had obtained a dying declaration like that of Cuesta's.

Kelly added that a dying declaration is "a very compelling piece of evidence" and considered "very credible and reliable" in court.

Online jail records suggested that both Gross and Leonardo would face arraignment hearings at the East County Hall of Justice on Wednesday 14 February on murder charges. Neither has bail listed.