Body in Landfill ID'd as Missing Fla. Girl

Authorities Cordon off House Near Somer Thompson's School after Confirming Body Found in Dumpster is 7-Year-Old's

(CBS/ AP)  Updated 7:51 p.m. EDT

Authorities believe a body found under trash in a landfill is that of 7-year-old Somer Thompson, a north Florida girl who vanished on her walk home from school, the sheriff in charge of the case said Thursday.

Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said the tentative identification was based on clothing and on a birthmark that matched the girl's. An autopsy was being performed Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Savannah after the body was found near the Florida state line.

CBS News has learned several law enforcement officials have cordoned off a house under construction roughly 250 yards from the elementary school Somer was last seen walking home from. The house is on her route from the school.

Detectives spotted the legs first and found the body partially covered by garbage Wednesday in a Georgia landfill, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving the neighborhood where the child disappeared Monday.

Somer's father and other family members were "torn up" after hearing the news, aunt Laura Holt said. She hopes authorities will find her niece's killer.

"I don't think they deserve to live," Holt said. "I don't think there's anything worse that a person can do — to kill a child and dump her in the dump like a piece of trash?"

Beseler wouldn't talk about what evidence police have recovered, or whether investigators believe the crime was committed by one or more people. He said police have questioned more than 70 registered sex offenders in the area, and that process was continuing. Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show 161 offenders live in a 5-mile radius of Somer's home.

Authorities had launched a massive effort to find her - searching block by block - even interviewing more than 75 registered sex offenders who live within a few miles of the girl's home, reports CBS News correspondent Don Teague.

Bessler declined at the news conference to say if she had been sexually assaulted or answer questions about the condition of the body.

"I fear for our community until we bring this person in. This is a heinous crime that's been committed," Beseler said. "And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe."

The sheriff said he told the girl's mother to prepare for the worst, and called her after receiving the news Wednesday night.

"Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated," he said. "It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that."

Beseler credited one of his detectives with suggesting on Tuesday that the landfill be checked. Trucks were scheduled to pick up garbage in Orange Park on Tuesday morning. He said detectives were told to go through the debris looking for evidence as the trucks brought it in.

"Had we not done this tactic, I believe that body would have been buried beneath hundreds of tons of debris, probably would have gone undiscovered forever," he told reporters. Even if the body had been found later, key evidence could have been destroyed or degraded, the sheriff said.

An FBI forensic unit is helping process evidence from the landfill in Folkston, Ga., about 48 miles from where the girl disappeared.

Two deputies stood guard at mother Diena Thompson's home early Thursday morning. It appeared to be full of supporters. An oak tree across the street was decorated with flowers, candles and pictures of Somer.

"This has been so unreal for the neighborhood," said Sharon Galloway, who lives across the street from the Thompsons. "I just hope they get that son of a gun."

At a nearby shrine formed by flowers and dozens of teddy bears, Catherine Sullivan held her teary-eyed 5-year-old daughter, Nya Frederick. They drove to the Thompsons' neighborhood from Jacksonville because Sullivan wanted to show her child the danger of being too friendly with strangers.

"She seemed to understand when I explained to her, her mommy wouldn't see her anymore," she said.

Somer vanished on her mile-long walk home from school 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.

Authorities launched a countywide search involving helicopters, dogs and volunteers walking arm-to-arm through wooded areas.

Orange Park is a suburb of Jacksonville with about 9,000 people, just south of Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The area where the girl disappeared is a heavily populated residential area with homes, apartment complexes and condominiums.

The girl's father, Sam Thompson, lives in Graham, N.C.

[searingtruth]

"Children should not know fear, or death, or suffering, for it is not their lot to know. Theirs is a time for joy, and wonder, and a time of great discovery. Let them never despair, or hurt, or want. This should be our highest calling, and our most sincere dedication."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[xdolphin222]

You people need to read the local news stories about this. There is no school bus service for kids that live this close (A MILE) from the school. Her mother had them taken to school everyday by a friend, but could not always have someone to take them home, since she works full time. The victim was walking home with her brother, sister and about 50 other children and a few mothers, but she was upset by an argument with other children so she went ahead of them, then she was gone. When I raised my daughter in Pittsburgh, PA, NO child was allowed to walk to school, even if you lived next door to the school. They should always be gathered with other children and parents at the bus stop.

[ubrew12]

I'm sad to read the number of posters blaming the parents for this death. Sad, but not surprised, as Americans are carefully schooled to believe that EVERYTHING that happens to them is their own fault: since they are rugged individualists, how else could it be? They make their own lives, watch their own children, and depend on the greater society for NOTHING. Unlike the rest of the namby-pamby liberal world. And now that a rugged individualist American has decided to prey on a child, and is no doubt feeling much better, much more confident, for his having done so, what does half of America have to say about this? That it's the childs fault, or at least the fault of her parents. Truly, only in America. And the ultimate irony is to hear rugged individualist American's calling on their police to solve this horrific crime. The police? The long arm of 'big government'? Tell me: who is the socialist... now?

I personally believe that America AS A SOCIETY is very sick, and the worst symptoms of that illness express themselves in things like this little girls abduction, the Columbine massacre, and the invasion of Iraq. Much has been said of how this kind of thing just DOESN'T HAPPEN (or very infrequently) in other countries, despite the GREATER number of children in global societies who find themselves walking home alone from school every afternoon.

Just as Americans DON'T believe in offering healthcare to those who can't afford it until they LITERALLY fall vomiting into an emergency ward, American society is set up to NOT prevent this kind of event, in any general sense, until its over. AND THEN, CALL ON 'SOCIALISM' (aka the police) to make it all right. Except it can't be made all right, can it?

As evidence of the American disease, I offer the proud testimony of one Catherine Sullivan (read above), who drove her five year old from Jacksonville to teach her a little 'personal responsibility'. Quite frankly, in the rest of the world, scaring the sh*t out of your five year old would be considered child abuse, but NOT in these proud United States. We start early here in teaching our children the consequences of their actions and, by inferrance, the lowered consequence of our own or of 'societies' (which we don't believe in anyway). In America, its not about preventing the murder. Its about preventing the blame from falling on you AFTER the murder.

[neice1960]

This is just sad, my prayers to the family, I know times are different today, bus stops and walking home was safe for me as a child, Today it is not,My sons bus stop doesnt even allow them there by themselves intill they are 9 yrs of age, which is still younge. The parents probably felt their neighborhood was safe, but looking at all the sex offenders living within just a few miles of this family its sickening, I urge all parents to use watchdog it will show where they are at and how close to th your house and who and what they have done, hold your babies moms and dads, Their are sick creatures out there, of course we know this

[evepan1999]

This is really sad but PARENTS REMEMBER EVEN IF THE SCHOOL IS HALF A BLOCK AWAY FROM HOME GET YOUR LAZY ASS UP AND WALK YOUR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL lots of sad incidents like this can be prevented if we parents were more alert.

[writer10]

as a matter of fact our school is 1/2 a block and we do walk our child, and we drive our other to the middle school and pick them both up. I couldn't even imagine a whole mile...spine shiver...

[cakarn]

I think this is very sad, but I have a question. Why is a 7 year old walking over a mile by herself to and from school? I have four children and live a "safe" neighborhood, but would not let any of my children at the age of 7 walking alone.

It seems there are more and more crimes happening to children that should have been monitored by their parents. The most visible is the case of little Madeleine McCann who was abducted from a hotel room at the age of four while her parents were eating in a restaurant and left her and her twin siblings alone. Not to mention the numerous incidents of kids being the victims of crimes occurring after midnight -- where are the parents?

[writer10]

Like the distance of 3 football fields...McCann's said they 'checked on them every half hour'...you couldn't dine if you left your children that far away and checked on them every half hour...when all it takes is a split second for something to go awry, why would you chance it?

[dblbar1]

Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of this beautiful young girl.....how very sad..

[us_1776]

When you look at the number of missing abducted children who have never been recovered, I think we need to make it mandatory that every landfill must use cadaver dogs on all the refuse before burying it. I'll bet if we could know the number of bodies that were in all the landfills we would be aghast.

[writer10]

who will pay for the training cost and upkeep for a cadaver dog in every landfill in the US? If you're gonna go that route, you may as well have one on every corner. It'd be more cost effective to stop letting pedophiles out of jail, but even that wouldn't deter the ones who haven't been caught.

[us_1776]

We spend ENORMOUS amounts of resources in this country trying to solve these missing child cases. The cost of training and using cadaver dogs at the landfills would be next to nothing in comparison. As I said if we were somehow able to know the number of bodies in the landfills we would be shocked.

[linfinster]

How sad and disgusting!