Child's Body Found Near Where Girl Went Missing
THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) - The search for a missing 10-year-old girl was called off Thursday evening after the body of a child was found near where Kiaya Campbell was last seen.
The news came as hundreds of people from the community gathered outside Skyview Elementary School to begin searching for her.
"I've known her since she was born. She's like a niece to me, she's a little love bug," said one woman.
Ten-year-old Campbell was last seen with a 15-year-old boy, the son of her father's girlfriend. The pair was walking to a shopping center in the area of 136th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard Wednesday evening when he told police the two became separated during a rain storm.
"We have a deceased child," said Thornton Police Department spokesman Matt Barnes. "We are waiting for positive confirmation through the Adams County Coroner's Office."
Police did not say whether the body was that of Campbell. They also did not call the death a homicide, just that it was an active investigation.
"We are not ruling anything out," said Barnes. "Obviously this is an active investigation and we want to have a successful conclusion and a successful prosecution if we do find the person responsible."
Barnes said that Campbell went missing between 8:15 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Barnes said that a 911 call was received at 5:30 p.m. Thursday from a Thornton resident who said a child's body was found near 128th and Jasmine Court.
Volunteers who gathered at the school were visibly upset once they learned the news that a body had been found.