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Missing Iowa Girl, 5, Found Dead CHARLES CITY, Iowa - A young girl found dead in a river is believed to be a 5-year-old whose disappearance last week prompted a frantic search, authorities said Thursday.
Searchers found the body about 7:40 p.m. Wednesday in the Cedar River, a couple of miles from little Evelyn Miller's home in Floyd, Floyd County Attorney Marilyn Dettmer said.
A positive identification was pending but Dettmer said it's believed the body is Evelyn, who disappeared last Friday. An autopsy was planned. Dettmer also said contrary to earlier reports, no arrests had been made and the investigation was continuing. The child's grandfather had said one person was arrested. Dettmer did not explain the discrepancy, or give detail on how the body was found or a possible cause of death. Hundreds of volunteers had joined in the search. Noel Miller, Evelyn's mother, has said she left her children, Evelyn, Gabriel, 2, and Damian, 1, with her fiance, Casey Fredericksen, at their apartment in Floyd, a small farming community about 110 miles northeast of Des Moines. When she arrived home from her overnight job later Friday morning, the apartment door was slightly open and Evelyn was gone. Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for family members, said they are devastated. "We all believed Evelyn would be found and we'd bring her home safe," she said. The grandfather, Richard Christie of Des Moines, told KWWL-TV in Waterloo and The Gazette in Cedar Rapids that he learned late Wednesday that his granddaughter's body was found. "She was murdered and her body was put in the river," Christie told the newspaper. "She was not drowned." Evelyn was last seen by two acquaintances of her mother's fiance about 2 a.m. Friday, asleep on a loveseat in the family's apartment. Those two men have been questioned by authorities and a search of their home was conducted. But authorities have not called them suspects. Authorities have said Fredericksen, 26, passed a lie-detector test. Andy Christie, Evelyn's father, and his wife, Lindsey, said at a news conference earlier Wednesday they still hoped to find the girl alive. They recently found an abandoned puppy and planned to give the pup to Evelyn. "We haven't named him yet," Andy Christie said. "We are waiting until Evvy gets home, so she can name him." Fox News ~ Associated Press ** Missing Iowa Girl, 5, Found Dead
