Photo credit: AP | Grandparents of Somer Thompson, Phillip and Debbie Bowling, are escorted back to Somer's parent's house after addressing the media in Orange Park, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. 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.
A young girl signed a card on Thursday at a memorial for Somer Renee Thompson outside her home in Orange Park, Fla. Somer's body was discovered Wednesday in a Georgia landfill.
Map shows route to school of Orange Park, Florida, missing girl
Sabra and daughter Victoria Ray pay their respects at a shrine made in memory of Somer Thompson across the street from where Somer lived in Orange Park, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. 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.
This undated photo released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows Somer Renee Thompson, 7, who was last seen Monday Oct. 19, 2009 in Orange Park, Fla. A Florida Ambert Alert has been issued for Somer Thompson.
After 7-year-old Somer Thompson vanished on her way home from school, investigators tailed nine garbage trucks from her neighborhood to a Georgia landfill nearly 50 miles away, then picked through the trash as each rig spilled its load.
They sorted through more than 225 tons of garbage before their worst fears were realized: Sticking out of the rubbish were a child's lifeless legs.
Sheriff Rick Beseler said the quick discovery of Somer's body on Wednesday, two days after she disappeared, may have saved precious evidence that could lead to her killer.
"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 said Thursday.
An autopsy to establish the cause of death was performed Thursday, but authorities would not disclose their findings. At a news conference, Beseler would not say if Somer had been sexually assaulted or answer other 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."
Searching landfills is common when children disappear, but it is unusual to try to zero in on them more efficiently by tracking a neighborhood's garbage trucks, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"Time is the enemy in these cases and the sheriff used every resource," Allen said.
The sheriff said police have questioned more than 155 registered sex offenders in the area so far. State online records show 88 sex offenders live in Orange Park, a Jacksonville suburb of about 9,000 people just south of Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
Beseler would not say whether investigators believe the crime was committed by more than one person.
Somer's father and other family members were "torn up" upon hearing the news, aunt Laura Holt said.
As for the killer or killers, "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?"
The girl disappeared in a heavily populated residential area about a mile from a stretch of fast-food restaurants and other businesses. Investigators will presumably try to pinpoint the trash bin or garbage can where she was dumped, based on the trash around her and the truck's pickup route.
Tuesday was trash day in Somer's neighborhood, and it was Detective Bruce Owens' idea to track the garbage trucks to the landfill they use in Folkston, Ga., 48 miles way.
"At that time I realized that this is probably not going to turn out good," the 10-year veteran of the Clay County Sheriff's Office told The Florida Times-Union. But he said he had been expecting to find perhaps a backpack or a piece of clothing, not a body.
The sheriff said he had told the girl's mother, Diena Thompson, to prepare for the worst, and called her after receiving the news Wednesday night.
"Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated," Beseler 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."
Somer vanished on Monday during her mile-long walk home from school. Authorities said she squabbled with another child and walked ahead of the group. She was last seen outside a vacant house that was on her route home, sheriff's spokeswoman Mary Justino said. Investigators are examining the house for evidence, Justino said.
On Thursday, flowers and dozens of teddy bears were heaped around an oak tree across the street from Somer's home where about 200 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of the family's home just after sundown.
Diena Thompson came out to thank the group who sang "Amazing Grace" and "You Are My Sunshine," then recited the Lord's Prayer.
"I wish I could hug every one of you," Thompson said. "I love every one of you."
Neighbor Carter Beukema shouted his comments about if the accused killer goes to trial: "I hope I'm on the jury. He will pay."
Somer "was always happy unless she couldn't find anyone to play with," neighbor Robert Ocain said. "She trusted anybody. Honestly, I think all the kids around here do."
At the tree, 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 dangers of being too friendly with strangers.
"She seemed to understand when I explained to her her mommy wouldn't see her anymore," the mother said.
Investigators on Thursday intensified their search for evidence in the slaying of a 7-year-old Florida girl whose body was discovered Wednesday afternoon in a southeast Georgia landfill after a nationwide two-day hunt for her when she did not return home from school.
The authorities in Clay County, Fla., said they identified the body as that of Somer Renee Thompson of Orange Park, Fla., from a birthmark on her left shin and her clothing. An autopsy was performed Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Savannah to determine the cause of death.
“There is a child killer on the loose, and that’s why we’re going to catch this person and bring him to justice,” Sheriff Rick Beseler of Clay County said early Thursday at a news conference outside Jacksonville, Fla. “This is a heinous crime that’s been committed. I fear for our community until we bring this person in.”
Sheriff Beseler said investigators got their first break in the case when they decided to follow the trail of garbage trucks from the neighborhood where Somer disappeared. Garbage was collected Tuesday in nine trucks and taken to the Chesser Island Road Landfill, near Folkston, Ga., about 50 miles from where Somer was last seen. Investigators sorted through more than 100,000 tons of garbage.
Later on Thursday afternoon, the spokeswoman for the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Mary Justino, said investigators were still sorting through the trash looking for forensic clues. Officers were also checking 470 “relevant” tips they had received, Ms. Justino said.
According to various news reports, Somer had gotten into an argument with a friend on Monday while walking home from Grove Park Elementary School, less than a mile away, and stormed off alone.
Sheriff Beseler would not release details about the abduction, but Ms. Justino said later that the police had questioned nearly all the registered sex offenders in the area. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 161 sex offenders live within five miles of Somer’s home, and Ms. Justino said that as of Thursday afternoon, investigators had been able to speak to all but five of them.
“I don’t think that is shocking or surprising,” David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center in New Hampshire, said of the number of sex offenders living in the area.
Dr. Finkelhor added in a telephone interview on Thursday: “I am of the opinion that these kinds of crimes have declined. They are shocking and galvanizing to the communities where they occur. But some of the research suggests that the effort we have made, both in flushing out sex offenders, incarcerating them and doing things like registering them and keeping tabs on them, are among the things responsible for the decline.”
Sheriff Beseler said he had told Diena Thompson, Somer’s mother, to be prepared for the worst when a body was found after 3 p.m. on Wednesday, and he said he called her again at 9 p.m. to tell her that the body was Somer’s.
“Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated,” the sheriff 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.”
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