Colorado: Police search for suspects in girl's abduction
Fifth-grader Jessica Ridgeway went missing last Friday on her way to school. After six days of searching, police have found a body, but they are still looking for suspects in what they believe was a stranger abduction.
This image provided by the Westminster Colorado Police Department shows Jessica Ridgeway, a fifth-grader who went missing last Friday.
AP Photo/Westminster Colorado Police Department
WESTMINSTER, Colo.
The search for a 10-year-old Colorado girl聽who authorities believe was abducted on her way to school has led to the discovery of a dismembered body at a park several miles from where the fifth-grader vanished, police said on Thursday.
But聽Westminster Police聽Inspector聽Trevor Materasso聽said authorities have not confirmed if the body is that of Jessica Ridgeway, who went missing on her way to school six days ago.
"The process is complicated because the body is not intact," Materasso said, declining to elaborate. He said authorities may release the identity of the body on Friday.
Jessica Ridgeway聽vanished last Friday after leaving for school in the聽Denver聽suburb of聽Westminster.
Her mother,聽Sarah Ridgeway, said she last saw her daughter when the girl聽left home for the short walk to school.
A night-shift worker,聽Sarah Ridgeway聽said she sleeps during the day and did not hear the phone call from the school notifying her that Jessica was absent, so it was several hours before she was reported missing.
Police said on Wednesday that the girl's parents were not suspects in their daughter's disappearance, and they were shifting the probe toward a stranger abduction.
The girl's father,聽Jeremiah Bryant, lives in聽Missouri聽and came to Colorado聽when he learned his daughter was missing, police said.
The case made national headlines in the days following Jessica's disappearance as hundreds of police officers, several bloodhounds and scores of volunteers scoured the girl's neighborhood looking for any clue to her whereabouts.
Investigators got their first break on Sunday when a man in Superior, Colorado, six miles away from聽Westminster, found the girl's backpack on a sidewalk near his home.
But Wednesday night, police said they made a grisly discovery when a body was found in a remote open-space area in聽Arvada, Colorado, about 10 miles from the girl's home.
Officers from 35 police agencies will continue to comb through the three crime scenes looking for evidence that may lead them to the abductor, Materasso said.
The FBI said on Thursday that the bureau is involved in the Colorado聽case as well as the kidnapping of a girl聽in neighboring聽Cody,聽Wyoming, who was lured into a vehicle and later released by an armed man.
"Currently we do not believe these cases are related," FBI spokesman聽Dave Joly聽said in a statement.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Richard Chang)