Fact Check

Missing Child: Jessica Ridgeway

A 10-year-old girl named Jessica Ridgeway is missing from her Westminster, Colorado home?

Published Oct. 11, 2012

Claim:

Claim:   A 10-year-old girl named Jessica Ridgeway is missing from her Westminster, Colorado home.


OUTDATED


Example:   [Collected on the Internet, October 2012]




 

Origins:   Jessica Ridgeway, a 10-year-old Westminster, Colorado girl, was last seen walking to a park around 8:30 on the morning of 5 October 2012, where she was to meet several friends before walking to school. Jessica never showed up at the park or at school. According to Denver station KMGH, local police and volunteers are continuing the search for Jessica in her neighborhood:



Officers with dogs searched the neighborhood near Jessica's home again [on 8 October], including several fields, said Westminster police spokesman Trevor Matterasso.

"Every search is crucial, that’s why we’re conducting those and that’s why we’re repeating. We’re still in Jessica’s neighborhood, obviously. That area has been searched. Areas are being searched a second and third time. We’re focusing on the area she was last seen in and again we’re focusing on the area where that backpack was found," Matterasso said.

Additionally, Matterasso said 125 searchers are looking in a triangular search area around the location where the girl's backpack and water bottle was found over the weekend.

Jessica's backpack and water bottle have been taken to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab to be analyzed.

Matterasso urged parents to speak with their children about Jessica's backpack, which was discovered near the intersection of Andrew Drive and Alpha Court in Superior.

"We don’t know when the bag was put there. Obviously over the weekend, kids were out of school. There is a chance that the kids may have gone by, playing, riding bikes. We want parents to talk to their kids about it," he said.


On 10 October 2012 a dismembered body was found by police in Pittridge Park open space about seven miles away from Jessica's home, and the remains were later identified as Jessica's. A 17-year-old boy named Austin Sigg has since been charged with
the kidnapping and murder of Jessica and is currently on trial for those crimes.

Last updated:   29 April 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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