Cops searching for missing girl find body
ORANGE PARK (AP) – Authorities say they have not identified a child’s body they found Wednesday in a landfill while searching for a missing 7-year-old girl. Family members were hopeful the girl is still alive, though neighbors in the girl’s community feared the worst.
The partially covered body of the child was found in a Georgia landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving from the neighborhood where Somer Thompson disappeared Monday.
Sheriff Rick Beseler said investigators searched through 100 tons of garbage before finding the body. He first said the body was female, then corrected himself to say he could not confirm the gender.
Few other details about the body, such as a possible cause of death, were released. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an autopsy Thursday.
Somer vanished on her mile-long walk home from school Monday in Orange Park. She was squabbling with another child, and her sister told her to stop. The girl got upset, walked ahead of the group and wasn’t seen again.
The girl’s aunt, Laura Holt, said family members were going through an agonizing wait to find out whose body was found.
“I’m still holding out hope this is not Somer,” Holt said Wednesday night, her voice cracking.
Earlier, the girl’s father, Sam Thompson, who lives in Graham, N.C., pleaded for her safe return. Holt is his sister.
“Somer, your daddy Sam loves you unconditionally. Stay strong and don’t give up the fight or the hope that we’re going to be a family again. I love you,” he said before authorities revealed they had found the body.
That news was an awful blow to her brother, Holt said. He nearly had a breakdown not long after, when someone claiming to be part of the search team in Florida told him they had positively identified the child.