The Glendale Police Department says it no longer plans to search a city landfill for the remains of missing 5-year-old Jhessye Shockley, who was reported missing nearly two months ago.
Glendale Sergeant Brent Coombs says police no longer expect to find any investigative leads in the landfill, and are no longer preserving an area of the dump they expected to at some point search.
'From the beginning of the investigation the holding and potential searching of these areas was contingent upon where the facts of the investigation lead our investigators," Coombs says. "It is based on these facts that investigators feel it no longer necessary to hold the areas of the Glendale Landfill."
Authorities say they don't expect to find the girl alive. Shockley's mother, Jerice Hunter -- who spent four years in a California prison for abusing her other children -- is the "number one focus" of the investigation into the girl's disappearance, according to authorities.
In the weeks following Shockley's disappearance, Glendale police
cordoned off a section of the landfill in anticipation that they might
need to search through the debris. Police now say they never searched
the landfill and they no longer plan to, despite telling reporters last
week a search of the landfill was expected.
"The release of the areas at the Glendale Landfill should not be seen as
a sign that we have found Jhessye, or that we have reduced our
investigative efforts," Coombs says. "Our primary goal remains the same: to locate
Jhessye Shockley and to bring to justice the person or persons
responsible for her disappearance."
Hunter was arrested last week on child abuse charges. She was released
from jail on Monday after the Maricopa County Attorney's Office failed
to file charges against her.
Jerry Cobb, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, tells New Times the MCAO is awaiting results from an additional investigation into
Hunter by the Glendale Police Department before making any charging
decisions. He says his office is working closely with Glendale cops.
Hunter's arrest, Glendale police said at the time, was "directly related" to Shockley's October 11 disappearance.
According to court records obtained by New Times, two of
Jhessye's siblings, who are now in foster care, told their foster
parents about some of the abuse Shockley received at the hands of her
mother, who scolded us last month for asking whether she hurt her daughter .
Jhessye's
13-year-old sister told her foster parents that several weeks before
Shockley was reported missing, Hunter came home and found her watching
TV with a boy from the neighborhood. The girl told her foster parents --
and later police -- that Hunter called Jhessye a "ho" and dragged her
into a bedroom, where the sister could hear Jhessye screaming and crying.
Following the apparent beating, Hunter kept Shockley in a closet. Her
sister told police she had to bring the 5-year-old water when Hunter was
out so she wouldn't become dehydrated. She would let the her out
when Hunter was gone, but quickly put Jhessye back when Hunter got home
to keep her from getting in trouble.
The sister also told investigators that she saw bruises and cuts on
Shockley's face and body while she was kept in the closet, and that her
eyes were black and only slightly open.
The 13-year-old also told police that Shockley's hair had been pulled
out and that she didn't look alive. She describes her as looking like a
"zombie" and that the closet she was kept in smelled like "dead people"
and was like a "grave."
All of the alleged abuse happened weeks before Hunter called police on
October 11. The last time anyone saw Jhessye alive was September 22,
which was the last time records show her attending school. Her sisters
say they never saw Jhessye the day her mother reported her missing, when
Hunter told police the older siblings were watching the girl as she ran
errands.
On October 9, Hunter bought a bottle of bleach at a Walgreens. She then
cleaned the entire apartment and scrubbed her shoes that were in the
closet with Jhessye with bleach, the sister told police.
Court records also show that Hunter was suspected of child abuse in
April, and a report was filed. It's unclear whether Child Protective
Services was alerted about the reported abuse.
Hunter has made sobbing attempts to declare her innocence since the day
she reported her daughter missing more than two weeks after she was last
seen alive. She's blamed everyone from the media to the Glendale Police
Department for not locating her daughter. When we spoke to her, Hunter
went ballistic when we suggested that she hurt her daughter.
"I really think they should take the focus off of me and quit asking people -- wasting time -- if I did something to my daughter," Hunter told us last month. "They should quit holding my babies hostage and trying to get them to say something [about what happened to Jahessye]. [Authorities are] telling me 'your kids aren't saying anything.' It's been 13 days. What do they expect my babies to say that they haven't already said? [CPS] don't wanna hear 'we love our mama, we wanna go home we want our mommy' -- they don't wanna hear that. They won't let me see them because
they don't want them running into my arms. They don't wanna hear them
scream 'mommy.'"
Check back for updates.
