Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Is burned body the missing local girl?
Detroit family of 7-year-old missing since Friday fears the worst.
Ronald J. Hansen, Christine Ferretti and Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Numb and her eyes glassy, Brenda Jeffries nervously smoked one cigarette after another as the pieces of a grisly puzzle came together.
Authorities in Romulus had just found a child burned beyond recognition, while her 7-year-old daughter, Raven, remained missing. She didn't want to draw conclusions, but her fears mounted.
"I wish I hadn't heard anything about that because that's all I can think about," said Jeffries, 41, with a cross dangling from her neck. "What monster would do that to a baby? I feel like I walked into a nightmare here, and I can't get out of it."
Investigators are trying to determine whether the body found in a field Monday is Raven, who disappeared from her southwest Detroit neighborhood Friday night. Detroit police still are treating the case as an active missing person's case, Detroit Police spokesman James Tate said Monday night.
Meanwhile, her family and friends fanned out to post fliers by the thousands in an effort to find the quiet little girl.
Detroit police remain interested in a man believed to be a family friend -- and convicted sex offender -- who flunked a lie detector test about Raven's disappearance, sources familiar with the investigation told The Detroit News.
Even as the situation seemed increasingly dire, Raven's older brother, David Hosler, refused to surrender hope. "We're hoping and praying it isn't her or anyone else's kid," he said, outside his mother's McDonald Street house.
It is an area accustomed to drugs, violence and the blight that often afflict struggling neighborhoods. According to Michigan State Police records, 55 registered sex offenders live in Raven's neighborhood, one of them only a few houses away.
Still, Raven's disappearance surprised neighbors.
"Normally when it comes to kids, there's no bull around here. Kids are the top priority around here," said Hosler, 19.
Daniel Mixon, 33, said, "This is something totally new."
It was radio engineer Russell Harbaugh who stumbled upon the badly burned, gruesome corpse of a small child in a grassy field off Ecorse near Henry Ruff about 10 a.m.
"I thought it might be a dead deer or animal, but when I opened the gate, I noticed it was like a big doll," said Harbaugh, chief engineer for Media Control, a Southfield company that maintains radio towers on the site.
"Upon closer examination, I saw it was the body of a girl that had been pretty heavily burned. I recognized it was a girl because of the curls. It was like something you might see on TV, but nothing this gross."
An autopsy is set for today.
Romulus Detective Dwayne DeCaires was one of the first investigators on the scene. He clutched a photo of the missing girl as he stood over the tiny body so scorched that police initially couldn't say if it was a boy or a girl.
"Everything is fairly close, but until it goes to autopsy, we can't be positive," DeCaires said.
Authorities said it appears the body had been set on fire at the spot where it was found at the former site of WCHB-AM, which is about two miles east of the General Motors Corp. Powertrain Transmission Plant.
Ronald Warren, who lives nearby with five of his six children, wandered to the end of the street to the crime scene. He stood for more than two hours trying to get details.
"It's tragic. Somebody really sick must have done this, and they need to catch him," he said.
Pamela Baker, who lives with Warren, stood in the front yard, holding her 2-year-old. "Even if it's not her (Raven), it's sad. It's still somebody's baby out there," she said. "This is just too close to home."
Investigators from Romulus were quickly joined by detectives from Detroit and agents from the FBI. They remained on site for hours fanning through the fields.
"We've got God and everybody out here helping us," DeCaires said.
Detroit police investigated because of the "possibilities," even without a positive identification of the victim, said James Tate, a police spokesman.
Police, family and friends have been searching for the girl since she disappeared about 8 p.m. Friday while playing near her home in the 6500 block of McDonald.
An Amber Alert was issued in the disappearance of the youngster, which automatically brings the FBI into the investigation.
Meanwhile, Brenda Jeffries endured another torturous day without her daughter.
"I'm just going through a living hell right now," Jeffries said. "I don't know what to say, and I don't know what to do."
You can reach Ron Hansen at (313) 222-2019 or
rhansen@detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/METRO/608080327/1003
DOB: Jan 8, 1999
Missing: Aug 4, 2006
Height: 4'2" (127 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 7
Sex: Female
Weight: 65 lbs (29 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From:
DETROIT
MI
United States
Raven was last seen at home on August 4, 2006.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Detroit Police Department (Michigan) 1-313-596-5301
Poster Available at: http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=1050452&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US
(Last Update 8/7/06 1:22am)