Body of missing 7-year-old U.S. girl found in Georgia dumpster

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Body of missing 7-year-old U.S. girl found in Georgia dumpster

2011-12-06 20:16:45 GMT+7 (ICT)

CANTON, GEORGIA (BNO NEWS) -- A 7-year-old girl who went missing from her apartment complex in the U.S. state of Georgia last week was found dead in a nearby dumpster on Monday afternoon, investigators said.

Jorelys Rivera went missing on late Friday afternoon from the River Ridge apartment complex in Canton, a city in and the county seat of Cherokee County. She was last seen at around 5 p.m. local time at the building's playground and never returned after going to get a drink.

Vernon Keenan, the Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), said the body was found on early Monday afternoon when investigators searched a dumpster about 100 yards (91 meters) from the apartment complex. "She was in the dumpster. It appears from the examination of the agents at the scene that she was severely beaten. We believe that she was sexually assaulted," Keenan said.

"This is going to be a very, very horrendous crime. I am convinced of that after having observed the body," the GBI Director said. "A child death is always a terrible thing but a child who dies under extreme violence is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a human being."

The body of Rivera was later transported to the GBI Crime Laboratory where an autopsy took place on Monday evening. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed, and there were no immediate suspects.

"We are pursuing several leads but, quite frankly, at this point, we do not have a strong suspect. We've not focused in on anyone," Keenan said during a news conference. "We very much need information from the public who may know something about the abduction of this child and the child's subsequent murder. So we welcome information from the public."

Investigators believe that both the abduction and the murder occurred at the apartment complex. "Evidence thus far points to that and the fact that the body was disposed of in a dumpster that was located at the apartment complex," Keenan said.

Some residents criticized investigators for being too slow to respond and said the dumpster should have been searched earlier. Police did not issue a Levi's Call - the state's Amber Alert system - because there were no witnesses who were able to confirm the child had been abducted.

Keenan said Rivera's mother is not a suspect, but she nonetheless lost custody of her two younger children following the abduction. "We don't think the child's mother had anything to do with her disappearance at this point," Canton Police Detective Candy Worthy told local media. "We just think that she was not supervising well enough to keep all of the children safe."

But the mother, Joselin, appeared in a family court on Monday to try and get her children back. "I'm a very good mother," Joselin was quoted as saying by 11Alive News. "I'm a very hard-working mother. My kids have everything they need. Everything is in order. They have their room. They have their food. They don't want for anything."

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