Police officials found the body of Brooke Bennett, the missing 12-year-old from Braintree, Vt., on Crocker Road in Randolph, Vt., on Wednesday. The discovery stemmed from information police gathered during a search of nearby property owned by Bennett's uncle, Michael Jacques, who was arrested on unrelated sexual assault charges on Sunday and has been called a "person of interest" in the case, police reports say.
Jacques will be charged in Bennett's kidnapping in federal court, according to the Associated Press.
The Vermont State Police could not be reached for comment.
Bennett was last seen on June 25, when her uncle and cousin dropped her off at the Cumberland Farms convenience store in Randolph. Bennett had allegedly told her family she was planning on meeting a friend at the store to travel to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to visit the friend's ailing relative. Surveillance videos recovered from the store, however, show Bennett leaving alone.
Police originally believed Bennett may have been planning to meet someone she met online through MySpace.com.
Flyers notifying the Dartmouth community of Bennett's disappearance have been posted on campus since June 27.
An affidavit made public in U.S. District Court today reports that a 14-year-old witness told police that on the day of Bennett's disappearance, Jacques had brought Bennett to his Randolph residence for initiation into a child sex ring. The girl told police she understood the initiation would include sexual relations with adult men, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
The three watched television at Jacques' home, after which Jacques reportedly told the 14-year-old to leave and brought Bennett upstairs, the affidavit reports. The girl told police she then left the house with her boyfriend, the Associated Press said.
The 14-year-old witness also alleges that Jacques assaulted her over a five-year period, according to the Associated Press. In 1993, Jacques was convicted for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.
A registered sex offender in the state of Vermont, Jacques was arrested on Sunday on sexual assault charges levied by an underage girl and uncovered as a result of the investigation into Bennett's disappearance.
On Tuesday, Vermont police also apprehended Bennett's former stepfather, Ray Gagnon of San Antonio, Texas, for aggravated sexual assault in connection with Jacques' arrest.
Gagnon appeared in federal court on Wednesday after also being indicted for obstruction of justice. Affidavits indicated that Gagnon told police he had accessed Bennett's MySpace.com profile from his San Antonio home using password information he received from Jacques, the Associated Press reported.
Police say that their investigation suggests that Bennett's MySpace account was altered so that it would appear she had made plans to meet with a user by the name of "Skittlemeup" before her disappearance, the Associated Press reported. Investigation into the sexual assault charges is ongoing, Vermont State Police say.
Information gathered during a search of Jacques' home led police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to Crocker Road on Tuesday, where the team uncovered what police reports refer to as "recently disturbed" ground. The body was located around 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Vermont State Police director James Baker said that the discovered body will be transported to Burlington, Vt. to confirm the identification and for further testing.
"The death is clearly suspicious," Baker said. "It appears to be foul play."
Baker reaffirmed that the police's work on the case is progressing, calling the investigation "narrow and focused" in the wake of the discovery.
