Police search for remains of missing girl

Searchers were digging next to a pond.

ENON, Ohio (AP) — Acting on an anonymous tip, authorities on Wednesday searched and dug for the remains of a girl who went missing nine years ago but found no conclusive evidence she had been buried there.

The searchers spent much of the day digging next to a pond near this western Ohio town for the remains of Erica Baker, an 11-year-old girl who disappeared in 1999 while walking her dog in the Dayton suburb of Kettering.

Kettering police spokesman Bill Torok said the searchers will send a few items they found to be analyzed at a lab as a precaution. Nothing appeared to be connected to the Baker case, he said.

Torok said authorities concluded their search and don’t plan to return unless something else develops.

Police have received many tips over the years and always check them out. Torok said he didn’t have additional details on the latest tip. He said the search near Enon Beach was more visible because it was out in the open, unlike previous searches in wooded areas.

Prosecutors accused Christian Gabriel of Springfield of driving a van that hit Baker as she darted into a street and then burying the girl’s body. Gabriel was convicted in 2005 of corpse abuse and evidence tampering and sentenced to six years in prison. Gabriel was not charged directly with causing the girl’s death.