ALYSIA PATTERSON
Associated Press Writer
SANFORD, N.C. Authorities in North Carolina say they are searching along a highway for the body of a 5-year-old girl missing for a week.
Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said Monday officers are searching based on "reliable information" that indicates the body of Shaniya Davis may have been dumped there.
Police had previously said they hoped they would find Shaniya alive. Her mother reported her missing last Tuesday.
About 200 searchers fanned across several miles southeast of Sanford on Monday.
Shaniya's mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse and is accused of offering Shaniya for prostitution. Police have also charged 29-year old Mario Andrette McNeill, who was seen in surveillance footage carrying Shaniya into a hotel.
A short time after she reported Shaniya missing, a surveillance camera recorded a man carrying her into a hotel room in Sanford, about 30 miles away.
Police say that man, Mario Andrette McNeill, is charged in the girl's kidnapping and he has said he doesn't know where the girl is.
