ORANGE PARK, Fla. — After 7-year-old Somer Thompson vanished on her way home from school, investigators tailed nine garbage trucks from her neighborhood to a Georgia landfill nearly 50 miles away, then methodically picked through the trash as each rig spilled its load.
They sorted through 225 tons of garbage before their worst fears were realized: Sticking out of the rubbish were a child’s lifeless legs.
Sheriff Rick Beseler said the quick discovery of Somer’s body on Wednesday, two days after she disappeared, may have saved precious evidence that could lead to her killer.
An autopsy to establish the cause of death was performed Thursday, but authorities would not disclose their findings.
“I fear for our community until we bring this person in. This is a heinous crime that’s been committed,” Beseler said.
Searching landfills is common when children disappear, but it is unusual to try to zero in on them more efficiently by tracking a neighborhood’s garbage trucks, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The sheriff said police have questioned more than 155 registered sex offenders in the area so far. State online records show 88 sex offenders live in Orange Park, a Jacksonville suburb of about 9,000 people just south of Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
Somer’s father and other family members were “torn up” upon hearing the news, aunt Laura Holt said.
As for the killer or killers, “I don’t think they deserve to live,” Holt said. “I don’t think there’s anything worse that a person can do — to kill a child and dump her in the dump like a piece of trash?”
The girl disappeared is a heavily populated residential area. Investigators will presumably try to pinpoint the trash bin or garbage can where she was dumped, based on the trash around her and the truck’s pickup route.
Tuesday was trash day in Somer’s neighborhood, and it was Detective Bruce Owens’ idea to track the garbage trucks to the landfill they use in Folkston, Ga., 48 miles away. He said he had been expecting to find perhaps a backpack or a piece of clothing, not a body.
Somer vanished Monday during her mile-long walk home from school. Authorities said she squabbled with another child and walked ahead of the group. She was last seen outside a vacant house that was on her route, sheriff’s spokeswoman Mary Justino said. Investigators are examining the house for evidence, Justino said.
