"We had a lot of deception taking place being told to us by a variety of sources in the community," Toledo Police Chief Derrick Diggs said during a news conference today. "The bottom line is we found what we believe may be Baby Elaina."
In a written statement, Lucas County Deputy Coroner Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett said the remains from 704 Federal are so immature it's not possible to determine the sex of the remains.
A DNA sample has already been sent to the state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab in London, Ohio; a BCI spokesman said test results should be available early next week.
Dr. Scala-Barnett also said the cause and manner of death will not be ruled on until all parts of the autopsy -- including a toxicology report and an anthropological study -- are completed.
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Police officials said that the garage had been searched soon after the baby went missing, but that it was initially searched for a missing child. Ultimately, Chief Diggs said, what was important was that police found the baby.
He refuted a question when asked whether police dropped the ball while searching the Federal Street property for the child.
"We didn't drop the ball," he said.
Rob Miller, chief of the special units division for the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office, said today that depending on the outcome of an autopsy, he would anticipate presenting the case to a Lucas County grand jury next week.
"We're hoping to know the cause of death after the autopsy, which should occur today," Mr. Miller said.
"Depending on the evidence, we would evaluate whether [the indictment] would be against one or both of them," Mr. Miller said, referring to the girl's mother, Angela Steinfurth, and her then-boyfriend, Steven King II.
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Mr. King spent several hours at the downtown Safety Building Thursday talking to detectives.
Chief Diggs would not comment whether Mr. King provided the tip that led police to the garage.
A search warrant for the garage where the remains were found was filed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court under seal and therefore was not made public.
Police officials said that the box containing the remains was in the rafters of the garage with other boxes.
Angela Steinfurth's stepfather, Richard Schiewe, does not believe the remains found on Federal Street were there the entire time that Elaina has been missing.
Mr. Schiewe said he was with police on June 3 searching through the garage; the computer box where the skeletal remains were found was not there, he said after the Toledo Police Department's news conference today.
“That body was not in the rafters the day after Elaina came up missing,” Mr. Schiewe said. “I was in the garage with police … I searched the garage. All that was in that garage was junk bicycle parts, plumbing parts, electrical parts, and two turtles, and a bunch of musted-up boxes.
“That body was not in that garage.”
Mr. Schiewe said he believes someone told someone else where the toddler's body was being kept and then put the body in the box and tucked it onto a shelf on the rafters.
“That box was not up there,” Mr. Schiewe said. “There was nothing. I took everything out of the rafters. Somebody put that body up there. Somebody went and got that body and put that body up there.”
Mr. Schiewe said he was going to meet with his daughter at the Lucas County jail at 11:20 a.m.
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Terry Steinfurth, Jr., the girl's father, who came to the scene later, said he "just came down to see what was going on," adding that he was sure more people would come to Federal and Leonard later in the day.
"I'm still holding on to the hope that it's not her," he said. "But you've got to be realistic to some degree, too."
"So I'm just being hopeful," he said. "The police are doing what they can do, hopefully, you know. Justice will be served in the long run."