| OCR Text |
Show Cause Of Rachel's Death Is Not Yet Determined By GARY R. BLODGETT - FARMINGTON - It's been about a month since little y. Rachael Runyan's decom-posed decom-posed body was found in a (shallow creek in Morgan ' County - but cause of death remains a mystery. M1S County Sheriff BrantJohnson said an autopsy .that was performed shortly af- , ter the girl's body was found failed to disclose the cause of ieath. He said the body was padly decomposed, having leen exposed to water from he creek and extreme weather conditions for nearly a month. Since the time the body was ound, an investigative task orce headed by the Davis -ounty Sheriffs Department nd including officers from the 'ederal Bureau of Investiga-ion, Investiga-ion, Sunset City, Hill Air :'orce Base and Morgan Coun-k Coun-k y have been conducting an ex-A ex-A snsive investigation. I "WE'VE HAD a lot of leads r especially during the first Ifl -ew days after the body was IK -ound -- but nothing has mate-f! mate-f! jialized," said Sheriff John-1 John-1 1 on. "We are still working on l"e case and still have hope I hat we will find the abductor f nd killer of this little girl." "But whether or not cause of death of Rachael Runyan will ever be definitely known is still undertermined," the sheriff sher-iff emphasized. "The body was in such a condition that it will be extremely difficult to determine exact cause of death." DETECTIVE Lt. Bob Peters, Pe-ters, who is directing the murder mur-der investigation from the Sheriff's Department, said members of the task force are on 24-hour call and checking out every lead that is reported. "I can't say that we are still working around the clock on this case, but we are putting in a lot of time all that is required re-quired to check out every possible pos-sible lead and to follow up on every report that the department depart-ment receives," the detective said. "WE'RE HOPING that things might pan out but so far there are no solid leads. "We're just plugging along and doing all that we can and we urge the public to keep calling on any suspicious persons.", Lt. Peters said there have been a few reports, especially in Salt Lake County, of attempted kidnappings but most of these have proved to be hoaxes. i HE PRAISED the women's groups, PTA organizations and others that have banded together to prevent further kidnappings. kid-nappings. "It was a sad thing to happen hap-pen (Rachael's death) but it certainly has united the community com-munity along the Wasatch Front. I just hope that we can catch and convict the person or persons who killed that little girl," the detective said. MEANWHILE, THE search continues for the kidnap suspect sus-pect described as being a black male, 30 to 35 years of age, and wearing an Afro and mustache. mus-tache. Sheriff Johnson said there were no "outward indicators" of a shooting or stabbing that caused the child's death. However, strangulation could have been the cause but if so this would be Almost imn..vM-ble imn..vM-ble to determine Tor certc!... HE ALSO doubted the girl was sexually molested. "Chemical "Che-mical tests are being performed per-formed to substantiate the initial ini-tial autopsy reports (that there was no sexual molestation) but there is little chance that these tests will reveal any new or additional information," he .aid. |
