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Missing Florida Girl's Father Says Birthmark on Body Found in Landfill Matches
Thursday October 22nd, 2009

FOX News -- Investigators searching for a 7-year-old Florida girl that disappeared while walking home from school said Wednesday that a child's body had been found in a landfill, and the girl's father said it was likely his daughter.

The partially covered body was found in a Georgia landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving from the neighborhood where Somer Thompson disappeared Monday.

Sheriff Rick Beseler said investigators searched through 100 tons of garbage before finding the body. He first said the body was female, then corrected himself to say he could not confirm the gender.

The girl's father, Samuel Thompson, said he was told by detectives that the body found in the landfill has a circular birthmark on its leg that matches the "odd-shaped" birthmark on his daughter's left shin, the Florida Times-Union reported.

"I'm angry. I'm so angry. I'm so hurt," Thompson told the newspaper as he wept. "My baby daughter laying in trash. Discarded like a piece of trash. God help the sons of bitches who hurt my daughter. They better find them."

Few other details about the body, such as a possible cause of death, were released. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an autopsy Thursday.

A crowd of about 150 people, some crying, gathered across the street from Somer's home, many clutching their children tightly. Others placed flowers under a tree.

"We are all devastated," said Tonya Jennings, a grandmother who lived three doors away and often saw the girl and her siblings come home from school. "I knew her."

Somer vanished on her mile-long walk home from school Monday in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville. She was squabbling with another child, and her sister told her to stop. The girl got upset, walked ahead of the group and wasn't seen again.

The area where the girl disappeared is a heavily populated residential area with homes, apartment complexes and condominiums.

Somer's mother, Diena Thompson, said earlier Wednesday that she assumed someone had her daughter. Police suspected foul play after first investigating whether she had fallen into something or gotten lost. Thompson made an appeal to Somer's possible abductors.

"Just drop her off somewhere. I don't care if you ever get in trouble," Thompson said, before the body was found. "I just want my baby back."

Sheriff Beseler said investigators expanded the initial search area and interviewed about 75 known sex offenders in a five-square-mile radius. Teams of volunteers have walked arm-to-arm through the woods, and deputies have used helicopters and search dogs.

More than 100 Clay County deputies, law enforcement officers from neighboring counties, the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have scoured a residential Orange Park neighborhood looking for Somer.

The investigation has produced more than 150 leads, but officials remain baffled as to her whereabouts.

Beseler said officers have determined that Somer's disappearance is not connected to an event that happened in the area on Oct. 10, when three people reportedly tried and failed to lure a 5-year-old girl into a car.

"Investigators located that car and those individuals," Beseler said. "We are confident that incident had nothing to do with Somer's disappearance. But I can't go into any further details about that until we finish our investigation."

Clay County Public Information Officer Mary Justino said the persons of interest in that case came forward Tuesday when they heard about Somer's disappearance.

Somer is white, 3 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 65 pounds. She has brown hair that was in a pony tail and was wearing a cranberry colored jumpsuit with pink stripes and a black T-shirt underneath. Her backpack is black with pink and white skulls and crossbones.

People are encouraged to call the tip line at (877) 227-6911 with any additional information on the child’s whereabouts.

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