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LOGAN, Utah, May 29, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Police in Logan are in the process of recovering the body of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Shelley, the 5-year-old girl who was abducted from her family’s home early Saturday morning.
Searchers made the grim discovery early Wednesday afternoon in the backyard of a home about a block from where police say the child was kidnapped by her 21-year-old uncle, Alex Whipple, now in custody in the Cache County Jail and charged with aggravated murder.
According to a statement by Logan City Police, officers are “investigating a very credible tip involving the location of “Lizzy” Shelley. Please understand that the process takes time.”
That tip is said to have come from Whipple himself, by way of his defense attorney, Shannon Demler. Demler told the media that he and Whipple were discussing the case when it was decided he would divulge where the body was hidden.
“We discussed the evidence that was available to me and the situation we were in and how he wanted to handle it. Obviously it’s his family that’s involved in this, and I think he wanted to give some closure to his family and then deal with the cards as they come after that. Mainly today we focused on recovering the body and going through that situation.
“Even though he’s done a terrible thing and is involved in something that’s obviously terrible, I think he wants to try to make amends for the family for what he can, that is by divulging the location of the body to them and the people out looking for it and having hope there would be a different outcome.”
The break in the case comes just hours after Whipple was formally charged with kidnapping and aggravated murder, based on evidence found at a variety of locations close to the girl’s family home.
Police say they are planning to update developments in a live press conference at 5 p.m.
Gephardt Daily will update this story as more information becomes available.
To all you jerks lecturing everybody about innocent until proven guilty, his mom might be reading these comments, etc. He really should have killed himself a while back and his sister wouldn’t be recovering her daughters body. I hope he rots in prison, little scumbag.
How DISGUSTING. This is NOT a man . This more than disgusting EXCUSE of a human Being has no rights. He gave that up when he laid hands on that innocent little girl.
This shit makes me sick!!
He wasn’t trying to be kind to the family by disclosing the whereabouts of their daughter. He was facing the death penalty. His only motive was not to help the family, but to save himself.
Logan City PD should have Knuckled down on their search, had they done so I believe that she may have been found in time or much sooner than later. It is becoming apparent that LCPD is losing their communities confidence to do their job right. I for one vote a No Confidence in their work ethic, they failed this time to do their jobs properly just as they did back in 2009 by allowing a sexual predator to remain on the streets of Utah, Cache Valley in General and going after someone with a lesser, but also serious crime. They had all the evidence they needed to make an arrest and pursue charges and to get a conviction out of it but chose not to pursue the sexual predator.
Hang him from a tree
I stand by Kyle Lewis Reed. We need to make people fear the consequences of hurting children and the state of Utah only cares about burying this kind of stuff. He anticipated his actions. That is evil. He did not give the location for closure but for his negotiation to not be subject to the death penalty. That is also evil. We should remove evil when we can.