WESTMINSTER, Colo. (Reuters) - Investigators probing the killing of a 10-year-old Colorado girl who was snatched as she walked to school and was later found dismembered said on Friday that a small wooden cross pendant recovered as evidence could be an important clue in the case.
Police in the Denver suburb of Westminster released photos of the distinctive solid-wood cross, which measures 1.5 inches by 1 inch. They did not say where it was found.
The announcement came as police indicated the killing of Jessica Ridgeway may be linked to a failed abduction of a 22-year-old woman jogger six months earlier at a lake near where the fifth grader was last seen.
"Police believe there may be a connection between the Jessica Ridgeway murder and the attempted abduction," police Inspector Trevor Materasso said in a statement, a day after police released a description of a suspect in that case.
"We urge the public to specifically look for someone with a cross like this that matches the suspect's description," the statement said.
The cross has a hole drilled into it that could indicate it was worn as a necklace, police said, urging any business that sells such a cross to contact police.
The woman who previously escaped abduction was grabbed from behind by a man who placed a rag with a chemical odor over her mouth, police said. They have described him as light-skinned with a medium build and brown hair, and put his age at 18 to 35.
Jessica Ridgeway vanished on October 5. Two days later, a man in a nearby town reported finding her backpack on a sidewalk in front of his house. The girl's dismembered remains were later found in a semi-rural park in another town about 10 miles from the Ridgeway home.
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