Story Created:
Nov 9, 2007 at 10:51 AM CDT
Story Updated:
Nov 19, 2007 at 6:49 PM CDT
NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) - A 9-year-old southwest Missouri girl missing for a week has been found dead in a sinkhole in eastern McDonald County.
Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said the body of Rowan Ford was found around 8 a.m. Friday morning on private land near Powell, about 10 miles south of her hometown of Stella, a village of about 200 people.
Authorities are still determining how the girl died, but Copeland said they're sure it's a homicide. He declined to elaborate.
The sheriff wouldn't say if there were any suspects but said no arrests have been made.
He said a McDonald County deputy found Rowan when he stopped to search the area while on his way to work this morning. Copeland s aid the deputy had remembered that there was a cavern there.
Rowan was reported missing Saturday after her mother returned home from a night shift at a Wal-Mart in a nearby town and couldn't find her daughter. Rowan's stepfather, David Spears, said he last saw the girl sleeping in her room late Friday before he left her alone to go out with friends.
Copeland has said that Spears has not been able to explain what he did in the five-and-a-half hours he was gone with his mother's car that he had borrowed from her early Saturday.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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