SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Torrential overnight rains had washed away the blood so the searchers at first thought the pale form lying on the earthen berm might be a mannequin.

“I almost didn’t believe it,” recalled former Lincoln County Sheriff Ken Albers, the first officer to approach the body of 9-year-old Becky O’Connell. “You don’t mess up a crime scene, but I had to walk over and touch the body to convince myself that it was real.”