2 Boys Investigated in Hanford Girl’s Death

Two boys, ages 12 and 13, are reportedly being investigated in the death of an 11-year-old Hanford, Calif., girl whose body was discovered stuffed in a kiln, the Associated Press reported.

The body of Traci Rene Conrad was discovered Thursday when residents called to complain about an odor coming from the kiln--a 3-foot-high, 2 1/2-foot-wide oven with a brick-lined cover weighing more than 30 pounds.

The boys are the grandsons of the man who owns the property.

The girl disappeared Feb. 25. Police said the kiln was not searched, although the rest of the property was investigated and the residents questioned.

Police declined to identify any suspects in the case and would say only that no arrests had been made. But sources said the two boys were being investigated, according to the Associated Press.

Wilma Struikman, who lives about two blocks from the deceased girl’s family, said she and her husband moved away from Los Angeles 22 years ago to rear five children and run a dairy farm outside Hanford.

“We came here and we thought it was ideal--a small town,” Struikman said. “We thought we were moving to a nice, quiet, peaceful place.”

But the deaths of three young girls in the area in the last two years, she said, have made her more wary of her adopted hometown.

“I take more notice of people who go by outside my kitchen window, and you pay attention more to who is new in the neighborhood or strange cars,” she said.