Shevy McGiffin, 13, had last been seen buying a coloring book at a Dollar General in Clarion, Pennsylvania, before her disappearance sparked a two-day search. On Sept. 11, a search party found her remains in a stream, New York Daily News reports.
Shevy disappeared on Sept. 9 around 6:45 p.m. while making what should have been a three-minute long walk from the Dollar General back home.
Andrew Schneider, the girl’s father, cried as he held a flyer with a picture of his daughter the morning before her body was found. “That’s the last she was seen,” Schneider said of Shevy’s trip to the Dollar General.
Schneider said before Shevy’s body was discovered that he suspected someone had kidnapped her.
“She’s a very lovable girl. She’s never run away before and she never would run away,” he said, according to Explore Clarion. “My feelings are, and I don’t want to say this, but my feelings are she was taken.”
Shevy’s mother, Tina McGiffin, said that she also believed her daughter may have been abducted, citing a report that Shevy was seen talking to a man in a Buick. Family members said that Tina was not the type of child that would run away from home or talk to strangers, according to CBS.
“My world right now is not complete without my babyygirl,” Tina wrote on Facebook before her daughter’s body was discovered.
Authorities, who have said that the case is still under investigation, have not released a cause of death or named any suspects.
Family friends have opened a GoFundMe page for Shevy’s funeral expenses.
“She was a sweet girl,” said Barbara McGiffin, the girl’s great-aunt. “She was a shy child, she kept to herself. … Why this had to happen, I don’t know.”
