ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KING GEORGE
SOURCE: Associated Press
A badly decomposed body found in a creek has been identified as that of missing 16-year-old Sofia Silva, Spotsylvania County Sheriff's investigators said Tuesday.
The body was found about 5:30 p.m. Monday by employees of Dominion Growers in the Sealeston area, about 7 miles from Fredericksburg along Virginia 3 east. The body was found about 30 miles east of where three other bodies have been found near Lignum, a hamlet between Fredericksburg and Culpeper.
King George County Sheriff Clarence Dobson said the workers noticed the body while they were breaking up a beaver dam. The body was covered by water that had backed up because of the dam.
Dobson said the body had been there for some time.
Capt. Pat Sullins of the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office said the body was identified through physical characteristics, including clothing and jewelry. She said that the cause of death and time of death have not been determined.
Sullins said there was no apparent link with the other three bodies.
Silva disappeared Sept. 9 from her front porch in a Spotsylvania County subdivision.
Her disappearance drew intense publicity throughout Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia and prompted weeks of intensive searches of fields, ponds and lakes in the area.
``I'm very saddened and I'm very determined,'' said Detective Twyla DeMoranville of the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office. ``The intense desire we had to bring her home safe has become an intense desire to find her killer.''
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB