Headless body of young girl raped in 1983 exhumed from Missouri cemetery for DNA tests

CULLED FROM  DIALY NEWS

The girl’s body was found in a dirty yellow shirt with her hands tied up with a red and white rope.

The tombstone is still there. The body is not.
Volunteers exhumed the remains of a young girl, who was raped and decapitated 30 years ago, from her burial plot outside St. Louis on Monday. They hope new forensic technology can identify the child whose head was never found — shedding light on a murder that has long baffled police.
"We found her. I just praise God we found her. I hope they can find the DNA to figure out who she belonged to and catch who did it," volunteer Freddie Jefferson told local station KTVI, after the discovery.

KTVI

Crews have exhumed the body of a young rape and murder victim buried in Washington Park Cemetery in Berkeley, Mo.

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Back in February 1983, the little African-American girl believed to be between 8 and 11, was found in an abandoned building on Clemens Ave. in St. Louis. All she had on was a dirty yellow shirt. A nylon rope tied her hands behind her back.
The girl came to be known as Hope. She was laid to rest somewhere in Washington Park Cemetery in Berkeley, Mo. Crews tried to exhume the body in the past but could not find it. The cemetery has suffered neglect and the burial listings are not accurate.

Volunteers hope to identify the girl who was raped and decapitated in February 1983.

Funeral director Calvin Whitaker teamed up with city and county police last November to finally uncover the body for testing. Earlier this week, they found the little girl's remains, reported KSDK.
  
"My hope would be that we find her family, her relatives. Somebody is looking for her," said Whitaker.
Now police are trying to find out who she was, why she was murdered and who is responsible.
The St. Louis Medical Examiner's Office has the body.

SOURCE DIALY NEWS
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