The body of an unidentified female was found Monday a half-mile from the hometown of an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl who went missing last week. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
@WiL

Investigators would not say if it was Celina Cass, but the Manchester Union Leader newspaper reported there was screaming and crying at her home when state police arrived to bring them the news.

Investigators immediately blocked off the search area near the Canaan Hydro-Dam shortly after a team of police divers emerged from the Connecticut River.

The body was later taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.

The grim discovery came just hours after Celina’s dad, Adam Laro, joined the chorus of people pleading for her safe return. He had been silent until now – and was in the hospital when Celina vanished.

“Daddy is okay, I’m getting much better,” Laro said Sunday without explanation. “Whenever you want to come home, Celina, daddy will be here waiting for you.”

While Celina’s disappearance is still being treated as a missing persons case, reports have surfaced that the girl’s stepfather was arrested for threatening an ex-girlfriend eight years ago and later committed for schizophrenia.

Celina lives with the stepdad, Wendell Noyes, and her mother, in West Stewartstown – a sleepy burg of 800 people near the Vermont and Canadian borders.

The FBI and other police agencies have gotten more than 400 leads about Celina’s disappearance, New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said.

“We are working tirelessly to bring her home,” she added.

The fifth-grader was last seen in her room at her computer around 9 p.m. on July 25, police said.

When her parents went to wake her the next morning, Celina was gone. There were no signs of a struggle.

The girl’s friends have set up a “Missing Celina Cass” page on Facebook that includes a photo and description of the shy, gap-toothed girl with long brown hair and brown eyes.
DN