Body of Ho Girl, 7, Found in Riverside County Field

The fully clothed body of a 7-year-old Chinese girl who was abducted on her way to school in South Pasadena nine days ago has been found in a ditch in a weed-covered field in Riverside County, authorities said today.

The disappearance of Phoebe Hue-Ru Ho, a second-grader at Arroyo Vista School, had prompted a massive search effort that included distribution of flyers with her picture, extensive media coverage and the offer of a $20,000 reward.

Her body was found at 4:15 Thursday afternoon about 10 feet off Granite Hill Drive near Highway 60 in Glen Avon, in the northwest corner of the county, Riverside Sheriff’s investigators said.

A witness reported seeing a “stocky, bald white man” adjusting something under a sheet on the roof carrier of a silver Mazda wagon parked earlier Thursday on the opposite side of Granite Hill Drive from where the body was found.

“We don’t believe she was dead more than a day,” said Riverside sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Dotts. He declined to discuss the condition of the body or possible cause of death except to say that it appeared she was killed elsewhere.

Results of an autopsy were expected later today, said Riverside County Deputy Coroner Scotty D. Hill.

Dotts said the body was found by a man walking alongside the road collecting cans for recycling. He would not identify the man or say where he was from.

Meanwhile, investigators were looking for a possible connection between the Ho case and one involving a 7-year-old Riverside County girl who was last seen playing in a private campground on Dec. 13, two days after Phoebe disappeared.

April Ann Cooper was reported missing by her mother, Debbie Hamilton, 34, who lives in a small trailer with the girl at Woodchuck Camping Resort in the southeast corner of Riverside County, officials said.

The 4-foot, 6-inch girl with blond hair, blue eyes and missing upper teeth was wearing a white sweater and lavender dress over white leotards when she disappeared.

“Detectives at our Elsinore station are conferring with us to see if there is anything to link them together,” Dotts said.