The Latest: Coroner says autopsy of dead girl inconclusive
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) - The Latest on the toddler whose body was found more after an intense search (all times local):
2:55 p.m.
The Will County coroner's office is reporting inconclusive autopsy results in the death of a 1ˆ½-year-old girl whose body was found in a northern Illinois home.
In a statement, the office said further study is needed to determine why Semaj (sa-MAH-jay) Crosby was found dead early Thursday. Final results will depend on toxicology results and the police investigation.
Will County Sheriff's Department Deputy Chief Rick Ackerson said during a news conference the child's death was "suspicious,"
The toddler's mother reported her daughter missing on Tuesday, sparking a massive hunt involving volunteers and law enforcement officers, as well as drones and bloodhounds.
Ackerson said deputies made a "cursory" search of the residence on Tuesday. He said statements from credible witnesses who saw the girl outside the house shortly before she vanished made authorities believe the girl was not inside.
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11:55 a.m.
Authorities in northern Illinois say the mother of the 1 ˆ½-year-old girl whose body was found inside her home is refusing to talk to detectives and only reluctantly let them search the home hours after they asked.
During a news conference Thursday morning Will County Sheriff's Department Deputy Chief Rick Ackerson said an autopsy hasn't been completed so he doesn't yet know how Semaj (sa-MAH-jay) Crosby died.
Ackerson would not identify any suspects but says the Joliet Township house where the woman lived with her children was crowded with as many as 15 "squatters" who lived in what he called "deplorable" conditions. He says detectives started to talk to the mother but stopped after someone else who lived at the house pounded on a wall and shouted for her to stop talking. The mother has retained an attorney who Ackerson says has not allowed her to speak further.
The little girl was the subject of an intense manhunt from Tuesday evening until late Wednesday night when her body was found inside the house that is located about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. Atkinson would not say where the girl's body was found.
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4:45 a.m.
Authorities say the body of a 1 1/2-year-old girl who was reported missing from a northern Illinois community has been found inside a home.
The Will County Sheriff's Office says in a statement it searched the Joliet home late Wednesday along with the FBI and found Semaj Crosby dead around midnight.
The sheriff's office says the search was conducted "with the assistance of an attorney the family had obtained," but didn't immediately say whose home it was.
An autopsy is planned Thursday to determine cause of death.
Hundreds of police and volunteers searched for Semaj since her disappearance was reported late Tuesday. Authorities had said her mother last saw the toddler in the front yard of their home in Joliet Township, a community about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.