'I fear for our community,' Clay sheriff says after body of Somer Thompson is found
Residents continue rallying in support of Orange Park family
By Jim Schoettler Story updated at 1:46 PM on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009
ORANGE PARK — Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said today that a body found in a Folkston, Ga., area landfill was that of Somer Renee Thompson, 7, who's been missing since she disappeared in Orange Park on Monday.
Beseler said he believes Somer was abducted and murdered on the way home from Grove Park Elementary School. He indicated there were no suspects and warned area residents to be on guard.
"There is a child killer on the loose," Beseler said at a 7:15 a.m. news conference. "I fear for our community until we bring this person in."
Beseler said he plans to hold a 4 p.m. news conference to release any new details. He encouraged the public to add to the hundreds of tips that have been pouring into police since Somer disappeared.
"I am very confident that we are going to have a positive outcome and find the person or people who are responsible for the death of this beautiful child," Beseler said.
Beseler declined to comment on leads in the case and said he hasn't ruled out that more than one person was involved.
A county official who spoke with someone familiar with the investigation was told that tracking dogs followed Somer's trail from where she separated from her brother on the way home from school. At some point between there and her home, which was about a mile away, the trail stopped. Beseler declined to confirm or deny that account.
Beseler said that the tenative identification of Somer was based on a birthmark on her leg and clothing, including a cranberry jumpsuit, that she was wearing at the time of her disappearance.
Beseler said the body, found as investigators were sifting through 100,000 tons of garabage at the Chesser Island Road Landfill, was removed last night. An autopsy will be performed this morning in Savannah to determine the cause of death.
Somer's father, Samuel Thompson told the Times-Union Wednesday that he believed it was his daughter because police told him about the birthmark. Beseler said he told the child's mother, Diena Thompson, about 9 p.m. last night in a phone call.
"Needless to say she was absolutely devastated," Beseler said. "It was the hardest phone call that I've ever had to make in my life and I hope I never have to make another one like that."
One of the many impacts of the crime has been grief felt by Somer's classmates, teachers and administrators at Grove Park Elementary School. Principal Lynda Braxton said this morning that grief counselors are on hand to help those at the school. She also said that among the activities were sympathy cards being prepared by students for Somer's family.
"We are just extremely heartbroken," Braxton said.
Braxton also said that absenteeism has increased at the 539-student school. She said 64 students were absent Tuesday, double the regular amount. She didn't say how many were absent Wednesday or today.
Meanwhile, when the search was still under way, schools Superintendent Ben Wortham led the county’s principals as they tried to maintain an academic focus in the classroom while trying to reassure jittery students and parents.
The search literally hit home for Wortham, who lives about 100 yards from the Gano Drive spot where Somer was last seen. At about 2 a.m. Tuesday, his house and many others in the vicinity were “searched from top to bottom,” he said.
“It feels terrible,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve gotten so de-sensitized. But when it happens at your own doorstep, when helicopters are hovering 25 feet over your house, it reminds you of how quickly things can change in our society.”
Then late Wednesday and today, he and other district officials changed from reassuring mode to grief counseling mode, as the news of Somer’s death spread.
Outside Somer's Horton Drive home Thursday afternoon, scores of people walked by a growing memorial of stuffed animals, melted candles and notes written for Somer - all placed under or on a water oak. The normally quiet residential street of neatly-kempt single family homes were lined with cars moving slowly by the home on sun-splashed, breezy afternoon.
James and Karen Harris, who live about a mile away, stopped by with their 3-year-old son, Brodie. The boy's father place a bouquet of flowers in the pile and stepped away slowly.
"We're here just to pay our respects and do what we can do to comfort the mother and family," said James Harris, 25.
A mood that was once full of hope that Somer would be found alive clearly turned somber, with visitors worries now focused on protecting their own children.
"I think everybody in general is going to be more aware of their surroundings," Harris said. "Something liek this doesn't happen out here."
Tyler Rukab, a 12-year-old neighbor of Somer's, stood in the street holding an empty red Folger's coffee container, which quickly began filling up with donations for the family. One woman plunked two $20 bills inside.
"It's kinda like a second family to me," Tyler said.
There was true sense of people coming together to support each other and the community's children, as well.
Nerida Martinez-Ruiz was taking names of people who wanted to join a group she was forming, whfch she called Mothers Against Predators. She said she hopes to find people who will have backgrounds done and then walk the streets wearing T-shirts letting children know they can come to them if they feel they are in danger.
",We've got to keep our kids safe," said Martinez-Ruiz, an Orange Park mother of three. "We have to come together as a community."
Beseler credited Sheriff's Office investigator Bruce Owens' with suggesting Tuesday that authorities check for the body or other evidence in trash being picked up that day in Orange Park. Beseler assigned personnel to track all trash trucks and follow-up by checking trash that had been taken to the Rosemary Hill landfill in Green Cove Springs and then transferred to Folkston.
Beseler said much of the trash was segregated as to which Dumpster it came from and then sorted and checked.He called the discovery of the body and preservation of fresh evidence a key in the case.
"I thought that was an outstanding idea," Beseler said. "I believe that body would have been buried under hundreds of tons of debris
probably would have gone undiscovered for ever."
Owens said investigators sifted through 200,000 tons of trash at Rosemary Hll and 100,000 tones at the landfill in Folkston.
Owens, a 10-year Sheriff’s Office veteran, works in internal affairs but is also part of a regional Child Abduction Response Team. He said this morning that his idea that the Dumpster and dump sites be searched is a normal procedure when it comes to such cases.
When Somer hadn’t been found by Tuesday morning, Owens said he feared the worst.
“At that time I realized that this is probably not going to turn out good,” said Owens, 40. “The next thing we need to do is move into another phase. We need to start looking at other avenues. That’s why I brought it to the sheriff’s attention.”
Wednesday night, as about 200 people showed their support outside Diena Thompson’s home on Horton Drive, Somer’s mother thanked them and blamed herself for not knowing how this can happen.
She asked that they sing Somer’s favorite song, “You Are My Sunshine,” which the crowd aptly obliged.
They also sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “This Little Light of Mine” before the 34-year-old mother collapsed, overcome from the day’s developments. Surrounded by her family and boyfriend, she was carried back into their home as the crowd began singing “Amazing Grace.”
Another couple of hundred people also paid tribute at First Baptist Church of Orange Park praying for Somer and the family.
Samuel Thompson, Somer's father, wept Wednesday afternoon as he spoke with the Times-Union by phone from his North Carolina home.
“I’m angry. I’m so angry. I’m so hurt,” said Thompson, 41, who is getting a divorce from Somer’s mother. “My baby daughter laying in trash. Discarded like a piece of trash.”
Sgt. Dan Mahla of the Sheriff’s Office said investigators spent two hours Tuesday searching the Georgia landfill, then returned Wednesday at 7 a.m.
Into the night on Wednesday, lights had been erected to enable investigators to seek more clues.
The body was found about 3:30 p.m., almost exactly 48 hours after Somer disappeared after breaking away from her twin brother and an older sister on the way home Monday from Grove Park Elementary School.
The landfill discovery came at the end of two days of intense searching in and around the Orange Park neighborhood where the school is about a mile from Somer’s home. Thousands of fliers were distributed by hundreds of volunteers while law enforcement officers, military members and other searchers looked for the little girl.
Anyone with information should call the Sheriff's Office at (877) 227-6911 or Crime Stoppers at (866) 845-TIPS or email CART@claysheriff.com.
Times-Union writers Dana Treen, Gordon Jackson and Beth Reese Cravey contributed to this story.
Check Jacksonville.com throughout the day and Friday's Times-Union for more updates.
How To Contribute
A bank account has been set up for the family in the name of Somer Thompson. Anyone interested in assisting the family with expenses related to Somer's death can do so at any area Vystar Credit Union. The account number is 0702794000.
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2009-10-22/story/i_fear_for_our_community_clay_sheriff_says_after_body_of_somer_tho# 
CLAY COUNTY, Fla. -- Clay County sheriff's deputies are searching an Orange Park neighborhood for a girl who they said has been missing since Monday afternoon.
Deputies said 7-year-old Somer Renee Thompson was last seen in the Grove Park neighborhood. They said the girl's mother called police and said her daughter never returned home from school.
She is described as 3 feet, 5 inches tall and 65 pounds with brown hair in a pony tail. She was last seen wearing a cranberry-colored jumpsuit with pink striped sleeves. She also had a black, pink and white colored backpack with a skull and hearts.
Deputies said the girl was last seen at 2:45 p.m. walking home from Grove Park Elementary School near West Gano Avenue and Debarry Avenue with her sister and friends but separated from them after an argument and ran toward her home.
Deputies said the girl's mother was outside in the neighborhood looking for the child when she flagged down a passing deputy and reported the incident.
The family lives in the 1700 block of Horton Drive in Orange Park.
"We would ask that the public assist us in providing any information that anyone may have about this little girl's whereabouts," Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said. "Anyone that's in this vicinity, please be vigilant, be looking, search around the area and call us if you saw anything."
Beseler said deputies are contacting the 53 sexual offenders who live in the area as part of their investigation. More than 100 deputies, police and SWAT members were searching for the girl Monday night.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the CCSO non-emergency line at 904-264-6512.
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