Missing girl found buried alive in bin

US POLICE at Lake Worth in Florida won a race against time when an officer found a missing eight-year-old girl buried under rocks inside a bin, authorities said.

Police had feared the worst, but then “the expression on everybody’s face just changed” when rescuers realised she was alive.

The girl, who had been staying overnight at her godmother’s house, was reported missing early on Sunday. She was hospitalised in good condition yesterday and a teenage boy who also had been staying at the home was arrested. Authorities said he confessed.

Her disappearance rattled a state that had been outraged over the arrests of sex offenders in the separate killings of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde.

On Sunday, Sgt Mike Hall was scouring the landfill for the missing girl when he looked inside the trash bin and saw a yellow recycling container. He opened the lid and saw a foot and a hand, Sgt Hall told ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday.

He said he summoned a fellow officer “and he shouted out, you know, ‘her finger is moving’ And at that point, the expression on everybody’s face just changed. I mean, it went from a hopeless scene to there’s hope there now.”

“For her to endure what she did and live for more than seven hours in the recycling bin says a lot for her,” said Sgt Hall.

In the hospital, the girl said: “I was laying there waiting. I knew you were coming.”

Authorities said the weight of the rubble would have made it impossible for her to dig her way out, and she was far enough from any homes that no one may have heard if she cried out.

“When a child is abducted and abandoned like this, the critical thing is time,” said Police Chief William Smith. “That we found this child alive is a miracle.”

The girl had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.

Milagro Cunningham, 17, was charged with attempted murder, sexual battery on a child under 12, and false imprisonment of a victim under 13 years old, police said.

The teen initially told investigators that the girl may have been abducted by several men in a station wagon. He said he followed them but they got away.

However, he later confessed and was charged as an adult, authorities said.

Authorities said Cunningham was identified by the girl and had lived at her godmother Lisa Taylor’s house for about four months.

The girl’s mother said: “If I could put my hand around his neck, he would be dead. He left my daughter to die.”

The girl spends occasional weekends with Ms Taylor when her mother works.

Cunningham had been sleeping on the living room couch after being thrown out by his aunt, a neighbour, for allegedly stealing from her home. He has a relatively minor criminal record and was on probation for throwing a rock through a car window, authorities said.

Ms Taylor was asleep when the girl vanished. The girl’s disappearance was discovered when her two teenage daughters came home after a night of roller-skating, authorities said.

A half-hour later, Cunningham knocked on the door and the sisters found him with his shirt torn and his clothes covered with dirt. He told of the girl being taken away in a station wagon.

However, Ms Taylor said, “The story got crisscrossed.”