Dive team members and paramedics stand near a retaining pond at the onramp onto Interstate 80/94 from Kennedy Avenue in Hammond as part of recovery efforts on Thursday, November 11, 2021. (Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune) (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
Indiana State Police are investigating the death of a young girl found Thursday afternoon in a retention pond off Interstate 80-94 in Hammond.
Construction workers working in the Oxbow Landing business park nearby found what they thought was a body floating in the pond, located in the interchange cloverleaf, around noon Thursday, Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Glen Fifield said during a news conference. They called E-911, and Hammond firefighters were first on scene, he said.
Rescuers retrieved the body of a Black girl under the age of 5, Fifield said. There was no identification with her, and he couldn’t speak to the condition of her body, he said.
A dive team member takes a break during recovery efforts near the onramp onto Interstate-80/94 from Kennedy in Hammond on Thursday, November 11, 2021. (Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune) (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
ISP has been in contact with the Major Case Assistance team from Chicago, Fifield said, but it is too soon to speculate whether the little girl is Jaclyn “Angel” Dobbs, a 1-year-old girl whose mother, Ja’nya Murphy, was found dead in her Wheeling, Illinois, apartment Tuesday.
The Lake County, Indiana, Coroner’s office took custody of the body and is working to identify her, Fifield said. Several agencies, including the Lake County Regional Dive Team, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and ISP Crime Scene Investigation unit, worked until the evening combing the pond for evidence.
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A “person of interest” has been identified and located in Missouri, as was a van believed to have been used in connection with the kidnapping of the girl, authorities said.
The person of interest had a prior relationship with Murphy and had last been seen with her Monday, the day before she didn’t turn up for work, prompting a welfare check at the home later that night, which was when Murphy was found slain in her home.
Wheeling police said: “Task force members also learned that this subject had left Illinois. Late (Wednesday), both the vehicle and person of interest were located in Missouri, however, the location of Angel Dodd remains unknown.”
Police, fire, and dive teams gather near the onramp onto Interstate 80/94 from Kennedy Avenue in Hammond as part of recovery efforts on Thursday, November 11, 2021. (Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune) (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
“Investigators were able to identify a person of interest and a vehicle. This individual had a previous relationship with Ms. Murphy and was seen with her on Monday,” according to the Thursday morning statement from Wheeling police.
Murphy died of asphyxia from being strangled, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, which conducted an autopsy Thursday. Her death was ruled a homicide.
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Both Wheeling investigators and Illinois State Police reported news about the van Thursday, local police in a news release and state police via an “endangered missing person advisory,” which can be used when a case does not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, according to Wheeling Deputy Police Chief Al Steffen. He said the advisories are used for situations that “do involve a person who is missing and believed to be in danger.”
The update provided by Steffen also said investigators have executed several search warrants and had been “working around the clock to locate the missing toddler. Evidence has been recovered in several locations to include Missouri and is in the process of evaluation.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Young girl found dead in Hammond retention pond; authorities conferring in Illinois about missing Wheeling 1-year-old
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