Missing Girl's Body Hidden In Pond

Authorities are "almost positive" that a body found submerged in an abandoned fish pond is a 13-year-old girl who had been missing for a week.

About 200 volunteers had joined detectives in Saturday's search for Sarah Michelle Lunde, some hugging and crying as helicopters buzzed overhead.

Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said the body was discovered in an abandoned fish camp about a half mile from Sarah's home in Ruskin, about 15 miles south of Tampa.

"It was clear to investigators that whoever put her there went to great effort to conceal her body," he said in a broadcast interview.

Searchers will keep looking for articles of clothing she might have been wearing at the time of her disappearance.

"We're almost positive it's her. Everything matches the description," sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Gee said a green arm cast was apparent when the body was found; Sarah had a bright green cast from a left wrist injury. Authorities hoped to determine a positive identification and cause of death during an autopsy.

"The family is very distraught. It's a tough time for them," Gee said.

Sarah was last seen on April 9, shortly after returning home from a church trip and around the time a registered sex offender unexpectedly paid a visit to her family's home. She was reported missing two days later when her mother learned Sarah was not at a friend's house.

"I will always remember that smile and that cheerful look when she sings and worships the Lord in the church," said Johnny Cook, pastor of the First Apostolic Church just blocks from Sarah's home.

Cook said the teen will be remembered at the end of Sunday's church service.

Gee said he believes the body had been in the pond since shortly after Sarah went missing.

David Onstott, who once dated the girl's mother, has drawn investigators' attention, but he has not been named a suspect.

Onstott, 36, was being held after he was arrested Tuesday for allegedly threatening a man with a screwdriver at a bar.

Onstott , who is 6-feet tall, weighs 190 pounds, wears a gold tooth and has tattoos on his arm, stomach and back, was charged with sexual battery with a deadly weapon in 1995, the Miami Herald reports.

The charge was reduced to using physical force on a victim over 12 years of age, and he served 5 1/2 years of a nine-year sentence.

He was charged in 2002 with aggravated battery and intentional bodily harm with a deadly weapon, but acquitted.

In 2003, his probation was extended after he was convicted of violating it.
He was charged this year for failing to register as a sex offender and, last week, for the alleged assault at the bar.

Investigators also were testing beer bottles found by volunteers for DNA evidence. Sarah's brother told detectives that Onstott took a half-empty bottle of Budweiser or Bud Light during his pre-dawn visit to the home.

The fathers of two previously slain girls had been involved in the search: Mark Lunsford, whose 9-year-old daughter, Jessica, was found dead last month after disappearing from her home, and Roy Brown, whose 7-year-old daughter, Amanda, was killed by a convicted child molester in 1997.

"I just wanted the mom to know I'm here," Brown said. "Because things change, once the media and the searchers go, once it's all over, she still needs people."

"It's kind of like starting over again," Lunsford told CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann before the body was found. "So, it gives me a second chance to start hoping some more, because that's what it's all about, hope and faith."