Police believe to have found the body of Hailey Owens in the Springfield home of middle-school football coach Craig Michael Wood on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Wood, 45, has been was arrested late Tuesday night outside his home and jailed on suspicion of first-degree murder, but formal charges have not been filed, the AP reported. He is suspected of the abduction and death of 10-year-old Owens from southwest Missouri, according to the police.
Police Chief Paul Williams said confirmation of the body and cause of death won't occur until after an autopsy, but added investigators "have a high degree of confidence" in the preliminary identification as Owens, the AP reported.
He did not disclose the child's cause of death, according to the AP. The Greene County prosecutor is reviewing the case.
Owens was walking to a friend's home in Springfield just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, according to what wtnesses told investigators, the AP reported.
Witnesses said a man in a gold 2008 Ford Ranger pickup truck drove down the street several times before abducting Owens, only a couple of blocks from her own home, according to the AP.
Owens did not attend the school in Springfield School District where Wood is a seventh-grade football coach and teacher's aide who supervises in-school suspensions at a school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, the AP reported.
"There's no connection that we've been able to determine at this time between the victim and the suspect," Williams said, according to the AP.
Owens was a student at Westport Elementary School this year, and was at Bowerman Elementary School last year, according to the AP.
Williams also added that police have no idea of a motive for the killing and the suspect has not talked to investigators since his arrest, the AP reported.
About 30 Springfield police investigators along with an FBI evidence response team searched the area near Wood's home Wednesday morning, as well as a nearby coin-operated laundry, according to the AP.
According to the AP, a records search shows Wood has pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance in 1990 in Greene County and was fined $100, but has no other charges on his record.
Springfield School District Superintendent Norm Ridder said in a statement Wednesday that Wood began working for the district in August 1998 and is a paraprofessional and coach at Pleasant View K-8 School, the AP reported. Ridder added that Wood has been suspended since his arrest.
