Body of Missing Girl, 13, Found in Marin County

The nude body of 13-year-old Jennifer Moore, who has been missing since Thursday, was discovered Monday evening at the side of a local highway, police said.

“It appears . . . that she was probably killed elsewhere . . ,” police spokesman Scott Sibbald said. “She was in some garbage bags, partially in and partially out. Part of her face and head were still concealed in the bags.”

Some of her clothes were found nearby, the spokesman said.

Sibbald declined to elaborate on the condition of the body. An autopsy was scheduled by the Marin County coroner’s office.

Sibbald said a motorist driving along Novato Boulevard, about half a mile west of the city limit, spotted debris alongside the road, stopped to check, found the body and contacted police.

Sibbald indicated investigators have a lead on “a suspect or suspects,” but declined further comment.

The popular eighth-grade student was last seen near a local shopping center, where she had gone to get an ice cream cone, her mother said.

More than 20,000 posters appealing for help in locating Jennifer were distributed over the weekend.

Family friend Jan Shippey called Jennifer “the sweetest; just a good girl.”

Jennifer’s disappearance was the latest in a series of cases involving missing Bay Area girls. Ilene Misheloff, 13, disappeared Jan. 30 on her way to an ice rink in Dublin; Michaela Garecht, 9, was abducted outside a Hayward market last November, and Amber Swartz-Garcia disappeared while playing in the front yard of her Pinole home last June.

However, investigators have said there is no evidence that the cases are connected.