JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) – Searchers have combed through nearly 50 tons of trash at a local landfill during the search for missing 3-year-old North Carolina girl Mariah Woods, an FBI agent said Friday.
Investigators went through about 95,000 pounds of trash collected this week by hand. Investigators were looking for “anything that could offer information to help us find Mariah,” said FBI agent Stanley Meador in a news conference Friday afternoon.
MOBILE USERS: Click here for photos of Mariah Woods and the search
While officials continue to avoid questions about whether they believe a crime has been committed in the girl’s disappearance, the landfill search is one of several techniques authorities have used that suggest they believe Woods could be dead.
Other methods include deploying cadaver dogs and the use of underwater sonar to search area waterbodies.
For the second day in a row, “items of interest” were flown from North Carolina to the FBI laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, for expedited testing, Meador said. The items flown out Thursday are still being processed he said, declining to give any information about what the items are.
He did say that, while several items were flagged during a massive ground search involving more than 700 volunteers, those items did not appear to be related to the case.EARLIER: AMBER Alert: More than 700 volunteers show up to search for Mariah Woods
“We are working nonstop to find Mariah,” Meador said. “This case is a top priority. We have a missing 3-year-old child. We are dedicating every resource to this case.”
