Police recover body of missing 10-year-old girl from West Philadelphia inside trunk of car in South Jersey, sources say
Jalayshia Alford was living in foster care and was reported missing from the 500 block of North Simpson Street on Oct. 26. She was found dead overnight, sources say.
Philadelphia police recovered the body of a 10-year-old girl who had been missing from West Philadelphia for more than a week inside the trunk of a car in South Jersey overnight, law enforcement sources said.
Investigators found the remains of Jalayshia Alford after a 10-day search in which dozens of local police, FBI agents, and community members scoured West Philadelphia and nearby wooded areas in hopes of finding the missing child, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Jalayshia, who also went by Malaysia or May, was living in foster care with a woman on the 500 block of North Simpson Street for about two years, her aunt Yolanda Brown said in an interview this week. She was a shy, timid, smart little girl with three siblings, Brown said.
Jalayshia’s foster mother reported her missing on Oct. 26, telling police that she left Simpson Street to walk to the bus stop for school, but did not return home that day, officials said. Brown said the foster mother called her and said Jalayshia’s biological mother had taken her — but Brown and police contacted the mother and did not find the child.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said this week that police recovered video that showed Jalayshia returning from school the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 22 — but did not recover footage of her on the block again after that.
Brown, the aunt, said she was told Jalayshia did not attend school that Friday or Monday. The foster mother did not report the child missing until the afternoon of Monday Oct. 26, she said.
Law enforcement sources said there were inconsistencies in the foster mother’s statement and timeline of events.
Brown and her family posted fliers across the neighborhood this week, and police and community members pleaded for information that could lead them to the missing child.
Police searched Cobbs Creek Park Wednesday evening, believing she could be there, but did not find her.
Then, overnight, they found her body inside the trunk of a car that a law enforcement source said belongs to a relative of the foster mother.
The cause of the child’s death was not immediately clear.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
