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Body found at Pa. landfill ID'd as missing Ohio girl, 16

PITTSBURGH - A body found at a waste disposal site in western Pennsylvania last week has been identified as a 16-year-old Ohio girl who had been reported missing days earlier, reports CBS Pittsburgh.

Gina Burger, who had been reported missing by her mother in Austintown, Ohio, on Monday, June 23, was found dead on the afternoon of June 25 at the Tri-County Industries, Inc. facility, a transfer station, in Pine Township, Pa., about 45 miles away.

Workers at the disposal site discovered Burger's body. She had no identification on her, according to the station.

The Mercer County Coroner's Office says the 16-year-old had sustained a fatal stab wound to her chest.

The teen's mother, Jacqueline Bacher, told CBS Pittsburgh that she believes someone took her daughter but she doesn't know why. She said her daughter would never just run away.

"She wasn't just a piece of trash to be disregarded," Bacher told the station. "Then, to find her in a landfill; I mean, that's someone who has no regard for life."

Bacher reportedly said her daughter left her Austintown apartment on Monday evening to borrow tea bags from a neighbor. She said that was the last time she saw her daughter.

The station reports police are trying to determine where the teen was killed. Investigators say that trucks come into the Tri-County transfer station from a wide area, ranging from Clarion County to Erie to Youngstown, Ohio. Then the refuse is put in larger trucks and taken out to a landfill.

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