Body believed to be missing Utah girl is found

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A body believed to be a missing 5-year-old Utah girl was found today less than a block from her home, bringing a wide-ranging search to a grim close five days after the child was taken from her home and killed by her uncle, police said.

The body believed to be Elizabeth "Lizzy" Shelley was found hidden under trees and brush after 21-year-old Alex Whipple told his lawyer where he had hidden her, Logan Police Chief Gary Jensen said.

The discovery came hours after Whipple was charged with murder and other counts. He provided the map in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table, Jensen said.

Jensen said the discovery was disappointing but "nevertheless is closure and helps us be able to now deal with the investigation and help the family through their grief."

In a statement read by a victim's advocate, the girl's mother Jessica Whipple said: "There are not words to express the sadness and heartbreak we feel today. This did not end the way we wanted to do but in the sadness we are comforted by the effort people put in to find Lizzy. We would never have expected this outpouring of love and support. It was beautiful."

The body was found after officers spent days combing the city set in a picturesque valley near the Idaho border about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Crews previously searched the area where the body was buried but didn't find her, Jensen said.

Alex Whipple's attorney Shannon Demler said his client "knows he did something that's inexcusable."

"He wanted at least the family to know ... she had passed away so that they could get some kind of closure," Demler said.

Whipple hadn't previously acknowledged involvement in his niece's disappearance, but did tell police alcohol makes him "black out" and sometimes do "criminal things," prosecutors said.

He alluded frequently to "how evil the world we live in is," as he talked about his struggles as a child, according to court documents.

Whipple was charged with aggravated murder, child kidnapping, obstruction of justice and desecration of a human body, a charge that relates to steps taken to hide the body, Jensen said.

The child's blood was found on Whipple's watch and sweatshirt, authorities said, and his handprint was discovered on the PVC pipe. Nearby was a broken knife taken from the family's kitchen bearing the blood of the girl.