Charges In 'Precious Doe' Case

Headless Body Of Little Girl Was Found In K.C. In 2001

(CBS/AP)  Police and prosecutors refused to confirm specifics or identify the source. Washington declined to be more specific.

A photo displayed by police during a news conference, showing the girl with a slight smile and adornments in her braided hair, may have been a picture of the wrong child. Oklahoma police saw the picture and said it appeared to be one of the girl's cousins.

Johnson was being held on $500,000 bail in her hometown of Muskogee, Okla., and will be brought to Kansas City as soon as possible, prosecutor Michael Sanders said.

Oklahoma records show Michelle Johnson has convictions for theft and forgery. The stepfather has convictions for several offenses, including assault with a dangerous weapon and possessing a sawed-off shotgun.

In Kansas City, police closed off the street in front of the run-down home where authorities said Johnson and her husband had been staying at the time of the killing.

Bowers reports that this case may be partially solved, but the community knows it's in for a lengthy fight.

"Now that we know the name, we know who we are going to be fighting when we go to court in the months and years ahead," Prosecutor Mike Sanders said.

People who long had been transfixed by the case welcomed news of the arrests.

Billy Stegall, a retired post office worker and Army sergeant, discovered Erica's head in 2001 and has gone back to the site regularly to pray.

"This is a day I have been looking for," he said. "I just asked the Lord to say who she is so she could be at peace, because she wasn't at peace and I wasn't at peace."

Even the mayor of Kansas City said it was a bittersweet day, "because we have lost Erica, and yet it's a day of closure."