The news conference announcing the details behind the arrests of Riley Sawyers' mother, Kimberly Trenor, and her companion Royce Zeigler II revealed that the original tip that lead them to the pair came from Ohio.
Police also were "fairly confident" Riley Sawyers was Baby Grace, the name police gave the little girl whose body was washed ashore outside Galeveston TX last month in a cooler.
Police said tips came in from "around the world" concerning Baby Grace, including several concerning Madeline McCann, the English girl who disappeared from her parents' resort room in Portugal earlier this year.
The McCann case has been getting major coverage in the U.K. and many people are following its twists and turns carefully.
The police spokesman, Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, also stated that investigators now would turn their attention to 22 other missing little girls.
"We still need the public's help because we still have 22 little girls with question marks by their names," Tuttoilmondo said.
The press would do well to start doing some checking into these 22 other little girls: Who are they? What is their story? Without the coverage Baby Grace began to receive in the press, the Riley Sawyers' arrests may never have come about.
No missing persons reports were filed in Riley Sawyers' case.
When press accounts of the Baby Grace case reached Mentor, Ohio, they spurred the father's family and Riley Sawyers' grandmother to start asking some questions. It was this checking and these questions which led police to Saturday's arrests.
DBKP is going to be examining these same questions: Who are these 22 little girls?
We have the names of three: Deonna Shipman, Karen Matusiewicz, Celestia Langille, as well as Langrille's brother, Everett. These are four altogether from the United States. There is still the case of McCann from the U.K.
From CNN, concerning today's press conference:
Police Say "Likely" Riley Sawyers is Baby Grace
The mother, her story of the child's disappearance and the background of Riley Sawyers follows.
Police said Monday that they are "fairly confident" that the toddler whose body washed ashore in Texas last month is 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers.
That says it all: a little bitty shoe," said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff's Department, holding up a child's pink and white sneaker at a news conference Monday.
Riley's mother and a man identified as her boyfriend were arrested Saturday. Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, and Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, are accused of injuring a child and tampering with physical evidence, the sheriff's department said.More on the 22 girls whose leads the police say they will next be examining.
The couple lives in Spring, Texas, a Houston suburb about 75 miles north of Galveston. Previously, Riley and her mother had lived in Mentor, Ohio.
They reportedly told relatives that Riley was taken by social workers from Ohio in July.
The arrests followed searches Saturday that were the result of a tip from family members in Ohio that came in on November 7, the sheriff's department said.
The girl's grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, of Cleveland, Ohio, told CNN affiliate WKYC that Riley Ann has been missing since June. Police said she was last seen alive in Texas three or four months ago.
The girl's family in Ohio has been "very helpful" in this case, Tuttoilmondo said, adding that the FBI and a Galveston County police officer visited with the family in Ohio on Sunday.
There may have been a custody dispute between the child's mother and her paternal family, Tuttoilmondo said. "There was some issue with that. How far it had gone, I'm not sure."
Investigators circulated composite sketches of a little girl wearing a pink skirt and matching top -- clothing authorities said she was wearing when she was found. The other sketch, a close-up rendering of the child's face, shows a fair-skinned toddler with long blond hair.
Tuttoilmondo said tips poured in from "around the world." Many of the callers said they knew a child who resembled the composite.
Investigators were able to track down more than 80 children referred to by the tipsters. But the whereabouts of another 22 toddlers is still unknown, he said.
"We still need the public's help because we still have 22 little girls with question marks by their names," Tuttoilmondo said.
22 question marks that need answers. For the family of Riley Sawyers, the DNA results could definitely provide their answers. As painful as those answers might be, at least they will know; there will be some cloture. They will then watch as justice for Riley is sought.
For 22 other families, the search will continue.
by Mondoreb
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
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