CONCORD, N.H.—New Hampshire police say a car impounded in Portsmouth on Thursday morning has no link to the disappearance of a 10-year-old Colorado girl one week ago.
The Buick station wagon bearing Colorado license plates was towed from behind a Portsmouth shopping plaza.
The car was one of hundreds of leads being pursued in the search for Jessica Ridgeway, of Westminster, Colo., who was last seen by her mother walking to school Oct. 5.
Portsmouth police said the car matches the description of the one a resident of Dexter, Maine, spotted, carrying a passenger who resembles Jessica.
“At this time we are confident that the vehicle and the child that was the source of the tip have nothing to do with the Colorado case,” Portsmouth Deputy Police Chief Corey MacDonald said.
The tip about the car was one of hundreds investigators have pursued in the week since the girl disappeared.
Portsmouth police treated the location where the car was discovered Thursday morning as a possible crime scene and used police dogs to search the area. The car was towed to the police impound lot, where it was searched before being returned to its owners.
Colorado police offered few details Thursday about the discovery of a body Wednesday in a park in the Denver suburb of Arvada, about seven miles from where Jessica disappeared.
Police spokesman Trevor Materasso said the body “is not intact,” and that has slowed the work of identification. Materasso said no other information would be released until Friday, and he left a brief midday news conference without answering any questions.
Police earlier declined to say whether the body was that of a child.
Colorado police say officers are continuing to search for Jessica.
Police have ruled out her parents—Sarah Ridgeway, who lives Colorado, and Jeremiah Bryant, who lives in Missouri. Authorities believe Jessica was kidnapped by an “unknown suspect.”
