Jane Doe - March 18, 2005 - Clayton, N.J.
Police Use Technology In Dead Child Mystery POSTED: 12:00 pm EDT August 13, 2007 UPDATED: 1:49 pm EDT August 13, 2007 NEW YORK -- New Jersey State Police are hoping technology can help them determine what happened to a young girl two years ago in Monmouth County. On March 18, 2005, remains of a child were found by a hunter walking near Route 526 in Clayton. Police have since then tried to figure out who it was and what happened to the child. The hunter discovered a partially buried skull and jawbone in tall grass, police said. While excavating the site, investigators later found a black Nike sneaker and a piece of canvas that may have come from a book bag or handbag. It had a print of the cartoon character Sylvester the Cat. Police sent some of the bones for DNA analysis. The victim has been determined likely to be a black girl between 5 and 9 years old. It's believed she died between 2001 and 2004. Investigators have now developed two images of what they believe the girl looked like. One is a computer-generated image based on a CAT scan of the child's skull made by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The other was done by a New Jersey State Police artist. The two pictures are intentionally different, depicting the possible age range for the girl. If you have any information that can help police solve the case, you are encouraged to call 1-866-657-7411. http://www.wnbc.com/news/13879405/detail.html?rss=ny&psp=news

Unidentified Child UPPER FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP UNIDENTIFIED DOB: Found: Mar 18, 2005 Height: 3'3" (99 cm) Eyes: Unknown Race: Black Age Now: 5-9 When discovered Sex: Female Weight: 50 lbs (23 kg) Hair: Unknown Found: UPPER FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP NJ United States On March 18, 2005, an unidentified deceased female child was located in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, NJ. The child was estimated to be between 5 and 9 years of age when discovered and between 3'-00" and 3'-06" tall. She is estimated to have been deceased for over one year prior to discovery, possibly since January of 2004. A size 8-1/2 Nike Air Force child's sneaker was found near the decedent's remains. The image shown is a composite created by a forensic artist at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Items such as hair style are the artist's estimations to complete the image and should not be used as significant markers for identification. ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or contact NCMEC Cold Case Review Unit at 1-877-446-2632, ext. 6235 or 6342 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Jersey State Police 1-800-709-7090 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=U10198&orgPrefix=NCMU&searchLang=en_US

AARONE THOMPSON BODY FOUND? By THE UPDATE: - August 16, 2007 AARONE THOMPSON BODY FOUND? Aurora police are investigating whether an unidentified body of a little girl found in New Jersey two years ago may be the body of little Aarone Thompson. Thompson was reported missing by her father in November 2005. Her father, Aaron Thompson, is considered a “person of interest” in the case. http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/?page=details&id=6470

Posted on Sat, Aug. 18, 2002 DISAPPEARANCE Missing girl linked to N.J. case Conway police to pursue lead on 4-year-old By Janelle Frost - The Sun News Conway police plan to follow up on an e-mail the department received Thursday related to the 2002 disappearance of Kynande Bennett, said Police Chief Reggie Gosnell. Gosnell said his office received an e-mail with a drawing based on a child's remains that were found in New Jersey in 2005. The e-mail contained a link to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Web site, where a composite drawing is posted of an unidentified female child whose remains were located in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, N.J. The individual who sent the e-mail linked the case to that of Kynande Bennett, stating that Kynande fits the description of the unknown child. The New Jersey State Police posted two images of the unidentified child's face on its Web site earlier this week. Kynande's mother, Vartasha McCollough-White of Conway, was convicted of homicide by child abuse last year after she told police that her then 4-year-old daughter, Kynande, disappeared in 2002 from a Whiteville, N.C., Kmart. She has said she did not harm her child. Officials in New Jersey said the remains found there could belong to any missing child across the country. DNA shows that the child is probably a black female between 5 and 9 years old, according to a statement released earlier this week by the New Jersey State Police. Authorities believe the child died between 2001 and 2004. The cause of death has not been determined, the release said. Evidence gleaned from the child's teeth show that she probably lived within a community that offered fluorinated water rather than well water. She also had no sign of fillings or other dental work, the release said. A child's black Nike Air Force One shoe and a piece of canvas material, possibly from a handbag or book bag, with a distinctive print of Sylvester the Cat - a Warner Brothers cartoon character - were also found by police at the scene, the release said. New Jersey police officials said they are actively pursuing tips, including one they got Thursday about Kynande. McCollough-White's attorney, Ralph Wilson, said Friday that they and local officials should follow it up. "They should certainly follow up on it and send any DNA evidence they have to be compared to the bone," Wilson said. "It's important because through this entire process, my client has maintained her innocence and said the child was missing. If DNA matches, that could substantiate her claim that the child was missing because she wouldn't have had time to get to New Jersey and then get back to South Carolina . Clearly, we know she was at ." Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Greg Hembree said his office would be interested if there is a way to make a genetic match to find out if the remains are that of Kynande. "We've always wanted to find Kynande's body," Hembree said. That has been a piece still missing, he said. Contact JANELLE FROST at 443-2404 or jfrost@thesunnews.com. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/161693.html

Posted on Fri, Mar. 14, 2008 DNA doesn't match missing girl By Kurt Knapek - kknapek@thesunnews.com A DNA profile from a missing Conway girl did not match that of a 4-year-old child found last year in New Jersey, according to Catina Hipp, spokesperson for Conway Police. The unknown child's DNA did not match Bennett's or her biological parents, Vartasha McCollough-White of Conway and Eddie Kevin Bennett, Hipp said. McCollough-White was convicted of homicide by child abuse in 2006 and sentenced to 20 years in prison even though the child's body was never found. She told police her then 4-year-old daughter disappeared in 2002 from a Kmart in Whiteville, N.C. Adison said authorities had evidence that the child was killed in Conway. The identity of the child found in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, N.J., remains unknown, Hipp said. In August, police said the remains were those of a black female between 5 and 9 years old, according to a statement released last week by the New Jersey State Police, who said they believe the child died between 2001 and 2004. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/breaking_news/story/382565.html

UPPER FREEHOLD: TV show sheds new light on 'Baby Bones' case Wednesday, April 15, 2009 11:06 AM EDT by Geoffrey Wertime, The Packet Group UPPER FREEHOLD — Just over four years ago, a hunter traipsing through Clayton Park in the morning made a startling discovery: a child’s charred remains. Today, the girl, who investigators have dubbed “Baby Bones,” still is unidentified, but the case now has drawn national attention after appearing on the popular television show, “America’s Most Wanted,” last month. And the show, which brought in a sculptor to recreate the child’s image, has prompted about new 100 tips on who the child might have been. ”We actually went to them,” said New Jersey State Police Detective Steve Urbanski, who is in charge of the case. “I sat down with the producer and explained the story that we had. They said they’d see what they could do for us, and we got what I considered the gold package — a whole entire show based on our case.” That case, unfortunately, has a lot of unanswered questions. Police believe the body is that of an African-American girl, who was killed and burned between 2001 and 2004. It couldn’t have been any later than 2004 because it takes about a year for bodies to decompose into skeletons. The child’s body was left at the edge of the park, near the road, which Detective Urbanski said could mean whoever left it was not from the area and did not realize there were more secluded parts nearby in the woods. But he said other things could have kept the person on the outskirts, including thick brush in the summer. Investigators at the time also discovered a child’s 8½-size shoe, which “America’s Most Wanted” reported was on the market in early 2001, and part of a handbag featuring a picture of the cartoon character Sylvester the Cat. Detective Urbanski, who took over the case about a year ago, said the shoe size and the theories of experts on bones and teeth suggest different ages for the girl, and she could have been anywhere from 3 to 9. He said officials can’t even be certain if only one child was killed though that is the prevailing belief. No child matching this description has been reported missing in the area, and Detective Urbanski said the sheer number of children who have moved out of local school districts and neighborhoods and the many children reported missing make it impossible to check on each one of them. ”I never realized how many missing children there were until this case,” he said. “It’s not very common to have a missing child like this who hasn’t been identified” since most cases involve children reported missing who have not been found. ”If we’re not able to find any reported missing children, we can only assume it was a family member” who committed the crime but wouldn’t have reported it, he said. ”We really have no more clues,” he said. “This is a hard case, a very hard case.” Fortunately, “America’s Most Wanted” brought on Philadelphia-based sculptor Frank Bender. Mr. Bender sculpts people, including re-creations of how murder victims may have looked while they were alive. His work on a bust of an older version of murderer John List and its subsequent airing on the TV show led to Mr. List’s arrest in 1989. State police lent Mr. Bender the child’s skull, and with it he created a bust of how the child might have looked in the hopes someone will recognize her. ”We were kind of excited (Mr. Bender) was doing it; he has a high success rate,” Detective Urbanski said. “He’s an extraordinary man.” The case’s TV appearance has drawn a great deal of interest to the cause. Detective Urbanski said since the episode first aired March 14, state police have received about 100 tips on who the child might be and are investigating those leads. Just last week, police in Richmond, Va., contacted New Jersey State Police about another possible connection, and DNA testing is pending. DNA can be extracted from inside the bones, Detective Urbanski explained, and for this case, police are employing the topnotch lab at the University of North Texas. However, it will take about four to six months to get the results back, he said. For now, he added, police have to collect DNA of these possible matches, which can be difficult if a child had no DNA on file. In those cases, police turn to relatives to get a genetic profile to which they can compare the girl found in Upper Freehold. ”Or it could be nobody reported this child missing, and we’re looking for somebody to put it together. Maybe a neighbor or family member noticed a child went missing abruptly,” Detective Urbanski said. He said the producers of “America’s Most Wanted” have expressed interest in airing an update in the summer if the case is still open. Anyone with information should call the New Jersey State Police Hamilton barracks at 609-584-5000. http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/04/19/the_messenger_press/news/doc49e5eb18e3099510805085.txt