Ribbon wrote:http://www.freep.com/article/20090605/NEWS05/906050449/Body+found+likely+NevaehTwo men fishing on a bend of the River Raisin in Raisinville Township found a body about noon Thursday believed to be that of missing 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan.
The pair -- a man and his father -- noticed the soil was disturbed at the edge of the river along Dixon Road and saw cement in the ground crumbling away, from which a terrible smell emanated.
The younger man apparently poked at the soil and saw skin. They contacted police.
Investigators in white crime-scene fatigues arrived at the scene Thursday afternoon and remained about nine hours later, reportedly recovering evidence from what was a shallow grave along the water's edge that had been covered with some kind of fast drying cement powder.
"The police told the family they are 99% sure" it's Nevaeh, said the Rev. Dale Hayford, senior pastor of Monroe Crosswalk Community Church and a friend of the family. Some additional testing will have to be done to confirm her identity beyond doubt, he said.
The little girl from Monroe had been missing since May 24. She was last seen in the parking lot of the Charlotte Arms apartment complex on North Macomb. For two weeks, hundreds of volunteers had searched for her.
There have been at least three men considered persons of interest. All are convicted sex offenders who knew Nevaeh's mother, Jennifer Buchanan.
When asked whether the body was Nevaeh's late Thursday, Maj. Dale Malone of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said: "We cannot confirm or deny."
Community somber as news of body spreadsFirefighters from area departments had mobilized early Thursday afternoon, hoping to reinvigorate the nearly two-week search for Nevaeh Buchanan.
But by the time those firemen assembled, two fishermen had apparently already made the discovery on the River Raisin, about a half hour northwest of Monroe, where the girl was last seen.
News of the discovery sent volunteers back to the Monroe apartment complex, where they held a candlelight vigil and nervously awaited news about the identity.
By 7 p.m., a medical examiner's truck had arrived at the barricaded scene in Raisinville Township. By 9 p.m., somber word that Nevaeh had been found was spreading throughout the area.
Neveah's mother, Jennifer Buchanan, and other family members were holed up in the apartment awaiting word. Police had told them they were 99% sure the body was the little girl's.
Still, as of late Thursday, police had not confirmed the body belonged to Nevaeh. Her grandmother Sherry Buchanan said police were doing DNA testing.
"I'm not giving up any hope until I see the body," she said.
But the Rev. Dale Hayford, senior pastor of Monroe Crosswalk Community Church, said the family had braced themselves for the worst. Police told him the body was clothed in garments similar to what Nevaeh was wearing when she went missing.
"They've pretty well accepted it," he said.
Meanwhile, Guy Bickley, 52, recounted the moment he and his father found the body about 12 miles away from the complex.
Bickley said he felt the ground beneath him give way and knew something was wrong.
He stepped back and realized that he wasn't sitting on normal riverfront soil. Rather, it was haphazardly laid concrete. And it was crumbling apart.
Then he saw what he thought was human flesh.
"To me, it looked like two-thirds of a little back," Bickley told the Free Press late Thursday when he returned to his Frenchtown Township home after spending the day describing his grisly find to police.
Bickley and his father, Lowell Kirk, 72, of Tennessee, decided to fish along Dixon Road, west of Sullivan, because it was too chilly to head out farther.
They'd barely settled in when they noticed the earth "wasn't right."
Bickley said it looked as though someone dug a hole, then poured a bag of concrete mix on top of the body. The men called 911 but had to wait two hours before anyone arrived. They spent much of the day at the sheriff's office filing reports.
Bickley said police wouldn't confirm to them that the body belonged to the missing girl.
"I hope to God it isn't her," Bickley said.
But the body likely belongs to Nevaeh, said officers near the Raisinville Township spot where Bickley and his father stopped to go fishing.
Nevaeh disappeared May 24 from outside her apartment complex. No one has been arrested in her disappearance.
But the mystery of her whereabouts seemed to be answered Thursday.
As he grappled with the news that his little cousin may be dead, Shaun Lawson made a plea to the volunteers who had spent the last two weeks looking for her. He told them to keep close watch on their children.
"Never veer off," he said. "Never take your eyes off them for a second."
He and other family members addressed the crowd of nearly 150, some of whom held candles. Many wore yellow ribbons.
Julie Churchill, 46, of Monroe was one of the volunteers.
"I was hoping they'd find her alive," the mother of three and grandmother of one said. "It breaks my heart someone could do that. She was just a baby. She was innocent."
She said Nevaeh's disappearance has driven home the point that people must always watch out for their kids.
Since her disappearance, police have zeroed in on a few men with histories of sex assault convictions, but no one has been charged in the case, and leads are dwindling.
One man, George Kennedy, 39, told an Ohio newspaper this week that he had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance. In fact, he told the Toledo Blade, he helped the girl's mother search for Nevaeh.
Police said early this week a $20,000 reward would be given to anyone who had information that led them to the girl. Bickley said Thursday nobody had mentioned a reward to him.
"Money aside, I'd rather it wasn't her," he said. "I I'd rather she be alive."
Nevaeh disappeared May 24 from outside her apartment complex. No one has been arrested in her disappearance.
But the mystery of her whereabouts seemed to be answered Thursday.
As he grappled with the news that his little cousin may be dead, Shaun Lawson made a plea to the volunteers who had spent the last two weeks looking for her. He told them to keep close watch on their children.
"Never veer off," he said. "Never take your eyes off them for a second."
He and other family members addressed the crowd of nearly 150, some of whom held candles. Many wore yellow ribbons.
Julie Churchill, 46, of Monroe was one of the volunteers.
"I was hoping they'd find her alive," the mother of three and grandmother of one said. "It breaks my heart someone could do that. She was just a baby. She was innocent."
She said Nevaeh's disappearance has driven home the point that people must always watch out for their kids.
Since her disappearance, police have zeroed in on a few men with histories of sex assault convictions, but no one has been charged in the case, and leads are dwindling.
One man, George Kennedy, 39, told an Ohio newspaper this week that he had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance. In fact, he told the Toledo Blade, he helped the girl's mother search for Nevaeh.
Police said early this week a $20,000 reward would be given to anyone who had information that led them to the girl. Bickley said Thursday nobody had mentioned a reward to him.
"Money aside, I'd rather it wasn't her," he said. "I I'd rather she be alive."
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Dy and her friends!
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