Body of missing North Carolina girl Shaniya Davis found in woods
Suspect carries Shaniya Davis at hotel. Picture from surveillance tape.
By Salim Jiwa
FAYETTEVILLE, NC – (Update) Police have found the body of a child they believe is Shaniya Davis – the five-year-old girl handed over to a man by her own mother.
Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance confirmed in a telephone interview with Vancouverite that the tiny girl’s body was found and police are simply waiting for forensics to confirm their find.
Chance said the body was found in the location where they had gathered 250 volunteers to help with the search. Chance said police had “reliable” information they would find the body in the location near an area bounded by Higway 87 and Walker Road.
Chance again emphasized the search was not random but brought on by specific and reliable information, leading to the possibility one of two suspects in the case agreed to talk.
Chance told Vancouverite earlier police have received “reliable” information that Shaniya, who was reported abducted from her home, is dead and her body is located in woods near Highway 87 and Walker Road.
She said the body was found near Walker Road.
“We have information that her body is there and we are searching,” said Chance. “We don’t have information that somebody has spotted a body, just information from a citizen that there may be a body.”
“We have 250 searchers and more volunteers have been turned away, we are getting their information in case we have to search again tomorrow,” she said.
She described the area as being populated with many homes and police and searchers will be looking through brush and woods to check out theinformation. But she would not say if the information comes from two people who are in custody over the tragic case.
Shaniya’s mom Antoinette Nicole Davis reported the child missing on Nov. 10.
On the same day, a hotel clerk in Sanford, North Carolina saw a man carrying the child in the lobby and toward an elevator.
Police confirmed the identity of the suspect seen on surveillance tapes retrieved from the hotel.
“Further investigation has identified the male in the surveillance footage to be 29-year old Mario Andrette McNeill,” said police in a press release at that time.
Detectives later located and arrested McNeill and they are continuing to question him about what he did with the child.
Over the weekend, police arrested Antoinette Nicole Davis and charged her with human trafficking, felony child abuse and prostitution. it is suspected she handed her child to someone and filed a false police report, one of the allegations police have leveled at her.
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