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NEWS > U.S.A. > GIRL FOUND IN LANDFILL WAS LIKELY MURDERED
GIRL FOUND IN LANDFILL WAS LIKELY MURDERED
October 22 2009
Orange Park, FL – There can be no greater loss for a parent than the loss of a child, something made all the worse when that child is murdered. Every year hundreds of children go missing across the United States and though most of them are found safe
and sound a handful end up in tragic circumstances, dead at the hands of a stranger. Such tragedies can destroy families and inevitably leave scars that will never heal.
Such is the case for a family in Northern Florida whose seven-year old daughter recently went missing on her way home from school. The body of Somer Thompson was discovered on Thursday in a landfill. Police officials have now confirmed that the young girl was indeed murdered and that her killer likely left her body to be disposed of with the trash. Police confirmed that they found it very suspicious that the young girl was found in the trash, leading them to suspect foul play, which was later confirmed by autopsy. The delay in cause of death is being attributed to relatively small number of bodies found in landfills in the Orange Park area.
“Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated. It was the hardest phone call I've
ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that. I fear for our community until we bring this person in. This is a heinous crime that's been committed. And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe,” said Sheriff Rick Beseler. “I can assure the public that this has never before happened before. We routinely pass through landfills and this is the first time we have found a child’s body in any of them. We have, on occasion, found the remains of elderly men and women but those are most often indigents who actually live in the dump. In those cases, the people have simply died in their homes, but this young girl had an actual home with a roof, and walls, and a kitchen. That’s the principal reason that we suspected foul play and now the evidence has borne out that suspicion.”
Authorities also considered the idea that the girl had in fact thrown herself out with the trash but decided that was unlikely. By all accounts, Thompson was a bright girl and was not the type to mistake herself for trash.
“What’s clear from this case is that they have a very disturbed individual roaming around their community. Orange Park is a small town, the kind of place where everyone knows each other and the kind of place where people just don’t throw out other people in the trash,” said Scrape TV Legal analyst Gabe Hawthorne. “I mean in every community there is always the possibility that you will encounter some kind of garbage freak but in a small town like Orange Park it’s very unlikely that such a person would go unnoticed. There are only so many garbage cans and dumpsters in a town like that.”
Police officials have rounded up all known local sex offenders and garbage pickers though as yet have no official suspect.
“The real issue here is whether the girl was murdered before she was placed in the garbage or died as a result of being thrown out. It’s also entirely possible that the murdered believed she was dead, threw her away, and then suddenly realized she was still alive but didn’t want to remove her for fear of being called names,” continued Hawthorne. “That could complicate the prosecution and potentially the defence. I don’t think there’s a person out there that hasn’t cringed at the idea of pulling something out of the trash for fear of being called a garbage picker. If they can convince a jury of that then they may be able to mount a strong defence and potentially get whoever did this off.”
It’s not clear that if the girl had grown up, being from Florida would have predisposed her to being trash.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
NEWS > U.S.A. > GIRL FOUND IN LANDFILL WAS LIKELY MURDERED
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