Jessica Ridgeway search continues as water bottle and backpack found
The search for missing Colorado 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway has taken a positive turn after officials said the girl’s back pack and water bottle were found today.
The Westminster Police Department tweeted a message asking people to stay out of the area while they brought in tracking dogs to follow the lead.
Jessica was last seen on Friday morning when she left to walk three blocks from her Westminster, Colorado home to meet friends for the walk to school.
It was a route she took every day, but this time she never got there.
The discovery of the back pack and water bottle came after a day and a half of searching that yielded precious few leads.
On Saturday, an army of eight hundred volunteers scoured trails and hillsides near Jessica’s home.
“Right now they’re just asking us to find anything that’s out of the ordinary, any kind of evidence we could find,” said volunteer Monty Yanker.
Detectives believe that the backpack is Jessica’s, but declined to discuss its contents or verify that it contained a water bottle with the girl’s name on it.
“We do have reason to believe that it is directly associated with this case,” Westminster police spokesman Trevor Materasso said. “We’re working with the family to make those confirmations. We believe the backpack to be Jessica’s.”
Jessica’s mother, who works the overnight shift at a tech company was asleep. She didn’t get the message which delayed her calling police for nearly eight hours.
“When we start with an eight hour delay, or a delay as substantial as this, the distance that she could have wandered even on her own just gets huge,” said Materasso.
There is a custody battle between the mother and father, but reportedly all of the parties are cooperating and there are no suspects.
Jessica was last seen wearing blue jeans, black boots, a black puffy jacket, and pink and purple glasses, ABC affilate KMGH-TV in Denver reported.
[…] Former FBI chief of Behavioral Sciences, Roger Depew, believes that the backpack and water bottle that was found belonging to the girl was planted. This has been the growing sentiment since before the girl’s remains were found. Depew, and […]
[…] The search for Jessica Ridgeway is entering its fourth day with the missing 10-year-old nowhere in sight, to the disappointment of her loved ones and residents of Westminster, Colorado. (Full story here) […]