Amber Oberholtzer, the 21-year old woman who stabbed 16-year-old Frankie Mead to death on New Year's Day in Fisherman's Wharf, was freed last night while the DA continues to investigate the situation. (If you watch channel 4 news, there was some amazing "only on KRON" footage of Oberholtzer fleeing reporters and jumping into an SUV, which does not appear to be online.) Under California law, a suspect can be held in prison for up to two court days before the DA must either file charges or have them released. Because the DA's office has no evidence against Oberholtzer showing anything other than a killing excused under self-defense, they decided to release her.

Mead's family is outraged that the DA's office let Oberholtzer go, claiming that witnesses have told them that she and her friends provoked a fight with Mead and his friends by shouting racial slurs at them. Oberholtzer maintains that Mead and his friends were attacking them in an attempted robbery. The police have no evidence casting doubt on Oberholtzer's version of events (and no one contests that after the stabbing, she and her friends fled the scene in a cab, and returned later), but the DA's office invite any other witnesses to come forward if they have contrary accounts of the event. The number is 415-575-4444.

Meanwhile, Mead's friends have launched a memorial website, and Oberholtzer has presumably returned to Elk Grove (outside Sacramento). She can be called back at any time should the DA choose to prosecute. The other person Oberholtzer stabbed, a 16-year-old girl, is expected to make a full recovery.

photo from cbs5.com