A 5 year old girl's remains are found inside a concrete block near a river In the late afternoon of May 24, 2009, five-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan was playing outside her home at the Charlotte Arms apartment complex in Monroe, Michigan. It was Memorial Day weekend, and the young girl was enjoying the warm weather, riding her scooter in the parking lot. Later that evening, when her mother, Jennifer, went to bring her inside, Nevaeh was gone.
A frantic search began, and an Amber Alert was issued, thrusting the little girl's disappearance into the national spotlight as hundreds of volunteers joined the efforts to find her.
For eleven agonizing days, her family and community held onto hope. That hope was tragically extinguished on June 4, 2009, when two fishermen along the River Raisin, about a dozen miles from where she was last seen, made a horrifying discovery. In a shallow grave on the riverbank, they found Nevaeh's body encased in concrete. The concrete had been improperly mixed, which allowed her body to be discovered.
An autopsy revealed a cause of death that was even more disturbing than the circumstances of her discovery. The medical examiner found that Nevaeh had died of asphyxiation from inhaling dirt, indicating she had been buried alive. There were no signs of other major trauma, such as broken bones or bruises. Toxicology reports also showed she had not been drugged. The little girl, who had just graduated from preschool days before she vanished, had her life stolen from her in the cruelest way imaginable.
The investigation into Nevaeh's murder has been ongoing for years, with authorities following up on more than 2,000 leads. Early in the investigation, two men who were known to Nevaeh's mother, George Kennedy and Roy Lee Smith, were identified as persons of interest. Both men were convicted sex offenders. They were arrested on parole violations and questioned extensively, but no charges were ever filed against them in connection with Nevaeh's death. DNA found on bloody items belonging to Kennedy did not match Nevaeh's. Despite the passage of time, Nevaeh's case remains unsolved, leaving her family and community still waiting for justice.
