By Monte Whaley
GREELEY — With the mystery over Kayleah Wilson's whereabouts solved by the confirmation Thursday that the body found in an irrigation ditch was hers, Greeley police turned their attention to finding the 12-year-old's killer.
"We've got a lot of work to do now," said Police Chief Jerry Garner. "Our pledge in this kind of case is that we do not give up".
A wide range of suspects will be reinterviewed and plenty of investigative avenues pursued after the Weld County coroner on Thursday determined from dental records that the body was Kayleah's, Garner said.
"We'll be talking to lots of people," he said.
The coroner determined that Kayleah's death was a homicide — but Garner would not say exactly how she died. He also would not say how long she might have been in the ditch, which is half a mile from her home but not on the route to her friend's house, where she was going to attend a birthday party.
Kayleah went missing March 28, shortly after leaving her family's apartment in the 2800 block of 28th Street. The next day, police began canvassing the area, including an area south of the Greeley Mall.
The path she would have taken includes heavily traveled roadways, and police requested an Amber alert be relayed throughout the state. None was issued because there was no evidence she was a runaway, nor was there any obvious indication of foul play.
The FBI soon entered the case, and widespread searches for Kayleah ensued but failed to turn up any clues.
There were no significant developments in the case until a ditch rider found the badly decomposed body near a water gate about 6 a.m. Wednesday, just a mile or so from where Kayleah was last seen. That same area had been searched at least twice, including with dogs, but Garner couldn't say whether someone had searched the gate where Kayleah was found.
Garner also said a video taken of the mall parking lot couldn't confirm Kayleah was there the day she disappeared. Link
