Post by LadyBlue on Aug 10, 2013 12:15:55 GMT -5
UPDATE 11:30 a.m.
Examiners Monday were able to confirm that the body found buried in Elgin Thursday was that of Gabrielle Swainson, according to a Richland County Sheriff’s Department release.
The girl’s identity was released as the Richland County Coroner’s Office conducts an autopsy. Exactly how Gabrielle died isn’t yet known, but that information will be released later by Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.
Check back later for additional details.
Published Friday morning
For days last August, police walked every square inch of the tiny town where missing teen Gabrielle Swainson was last known to be.
But the 5-foot-deep hole where her body was found Thursday night was impossible to see.
In the early days of the search, the FBI had set up its command post at a fire department less than two football fields away. Even cadaver dogs had walked past the grave hidden among trees about 40 yards from railroad tracks off U.S. 1 in Elgin.
Finally, the man charged with Gabrielle’s kidnapping pointed it out to Richland County sheriff’s investigators.
“The monster Freddie Grant took us to a location in Elgin where he buried Gabbiee,” Sheriff Leon Lott said. “This has been 357 days of terror that Gabbiee’s mother and family have endured and that this community has endured. This is not the way we would have liked to end it.”
Grant was charged Thursday with murder after pointing to where deputies should dig. In exchange for leading investigators to the body, Grant will receive an undisclosed plea agreement.
But Grant will not receive a light sentence because of it, Lott said. Instead, his 27-year-old daughter, Dominique Grant, who was arrested earlier this summer on an accessory charge, is the most likely beneficiary of any deal.
Gabrielle disappeared from her mother’s home in Northeast Richland County in the early morning hours of Aug. 18, 2012. Her disappearance earned national attention and tugged at the local community’s heartstrings as people waited for news on the girl’s whereabouts.
Read more here: www.thestate.com/2013/08/08/2908377/sheriff-calls-7-pm-press-conference.html#storylink=cpy
Examiners Monday were able to confirm that the body found buried in Elgin Thursday was that of Gabrielle Swainson, according to a Richland County Sheriff’s Department release.
The girl’s identity was released as the Richland County Coroner’s Office conducts an autopsy. Exactly how Gabrielle died isn’t yet known, but that information will be released later by Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.
Check back later for additional details.
Published Friday morning
For days last August, police walked every square inch of the tiny town where missing teen Gabrielle Swainson was last known to be.
But the 5-foot-deep hole where her body was found Thursday night was impossible to see.
In the early days of the search, the FBI had set up its command post at a fire department less than two football fields away. Even cadaver dogs had walked past the grave hidden among trees about 40 yards from railroad tracks off U.S. 1 in Elgin.
Finally, the man charged with Gabrielle’s kidnapping pointed it out to Richland County sheriff’s investigators.
“The monster Freddie Grant took us to a location in Elgin where he buried Gabbiee,” Sheriff Leon Lott said. “This has been 357 days of terror that Gabbiee’s mother and family have endured and that this community has endured. This is not the way we would have liked to end it.”
Grant was charged Thursday with murder after pointing to where deputies should dig. In exchange for leading investigators to the body, Grant will receive an undisclosed plea agreement.
But Grant will not receive a light sentence because of it, Lott said. Instead, his 27-year-old daughter, Dominique Grant, who was arrested earlier this summer on an accessory charge, is the most likely beneficiary of any deal.
Gabrielle disappeared from her mother’s home in Northeast Richland County in the early morning hours of Aug. 18, 2012. Her disappearance earned national attention and tugged at the local community’s heartstrings as people waited for news on the girl’s whereabouts.
Read more here: www.thestate.com/2013/08/08/2908377/sheriff-calls-7-pm-press-conference.html#storylink=cpy
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