FAIRFIELD, Calif. (AP) — A 13-year-old girl reported missing Thursday has been found dead in a park in the Northern California city of Fairfield, police said.
A passerby discovered the girl's naked body a little before 7 a.m. Friday in the city's Alan Witt Park and flagged down a police officer who was driving by, Fairfield Police Officer Cleo Mayoral said Saturday.
An autopsy was performed, but police did not release the girl's name or her cause of death. Mayoral said there were no obvious signs of trauma to the girl when she was found.
"I thought to myself, that looked like a mannequin, didn't look like a human body," the passerby, Eric May, told KTVU-TV.
The girl was reported missing around 5:45 p.m. Thursday by her guardian at a foster home in nearby Suisun City. That city's police Cmdr. Tim Mattos told the Daily Republic that the guardian last saw her board a school bus. He said she was in class all day and was expected home around 4 p.m.
He called the discovery of the dead child "a shock to our system."
No suspect or suspects have been identified, but detectives were canvassing neighborhoods and checking video images from surveillance cameras as part of their investigation, Mayoral said.
Sacramento television station CBS13 reported the girl attended Green Valley Middle School, which is about eight miles from the park.
School Principal Gregg Hubbs declined to comment on the girl's death.
