x
Breaking News
More () »

Police Take Thanksgiving to Evaluate Murder Case

Law enforcement agencies work through Thanksgiving to solve the murder of a 6 -year-old Jersey Bridgeman. Thursday, Bentonville Police, FBI, and several other a...

Law enforcement agencies work through Thanksgiving to solve the murder of a 6 -year-old Jersey Bridgeman.

Thursday, Bentonville Police, FBI, and several other agencies compiled days of evidence for review.

"Today is the day that we are going to make the best use of that information by reviewing it, assembling it, documenting and observations related to that information," Bentonville Police Chief Jon Simpson.

No suspect is in custody for the killing of the six-year-old girl.   

Simpson says they are still in the process of interviewing people and they're not currently holding anyone for questioning.

"We are not holding anybody for questioning, we have a list of witnesses of persons and witnesses and potential other persons that we are working through," says Simpson.

The FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team has special agents also assisting in the case.

“Team members typically consist of 4 to 6 members who regionally come in and help you out who are experienced investigators in these types of cases,” says Kimberly Brunell, FBI Special Agent.   "We can offer investigative technical and other expertise assistance to our state and local partners."

Jersey Bridgeman was reported missing 6:45 Tuesday morning from her home on SE 'A’ street, her body was found two houses down minutes after police arrived on scene.

Thursday, people put stuffed animals on the front porch of Jersey’s home, some not even knowing the family or the little girl.

Simpson says search warrants were obtained for three houses, within six hours of finding Jersey's body.

But investigators worked throughout the night gathering evidence.

"All in all I think there were about 50 items of evidence and clearly a lot more items documented. In a case like this I guess you never know on the front end what might become important and that's why that documentation comes in," says Simpson.

It is being reviewed at the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock.

"They actually reached out to us as late as yesterday afternoon at 5 p.m. and said do you have anything else that you would like to contribute in this case," adds Simpson.

Jersey's body has been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death.  That report has not yet been released.

Bentonville school administrators are working on a plan on how to inform students of Jersey's death when they return to school on Monday.  Jersey was a student at Sugar Creek Elementary.

Before You Leave, Check This Out