news as issues

somer thompson body found



Authorities have tentatively identified
a body found in a landfill as that of 7-year-old Somer Thompson, a
north Florida girl who disappeared on her walk home from school,
the sheriff in charge of the case said Thursday.


Sheriff Rick Beseler said Thursday that the identification was
based on clothing on the body and a birthmark that matched the
girl’s.

The partially covered body of the child was found in a Georgia
landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed
garbage trucks leaving the neighborhood where the child disappeared Monday.


Beseler said at a news conference he still fears for the
community until a suspect is apprehended. He wouldn’t talk about
what evidence police have recovered, or whether investigators
believe the crime was committed by one or more people.

An FBI forensic unit is helping process evidence from the
landfill.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an autopsy Thursday.

The landfill is in Folkston, Ga., about 48 miles from where the
girl disappeared.

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.


Orange Park is a suburb of Jacksonville 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.