Autopsy can't find cause of NH girl's death

Community residents were saddened that an autopsy conducted Tuesday on an 11-year-old girl found in a river nearly a week after she disappeared failed to determine how she died.

Further toxicology tests and investigation into Celina Cass' death are needed, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said at a news conference.

"Despite the findings, the attorney general's office continues to investigate her death as suspicious," Young said. "A criminal investigation remains ongoing into the circumstances of her death."

Residents had hoped the autopsy results would bring closure after days spent anxiously awaiting news of the missing girl, said to be a friendly and athletic child.

"I don't even know what to say. I thought the community needed some answers, and I thought we were going to get them tonight," said Debbie Whelan, whose daughter, a friend of Celina's, was sobbing after watching a news report on a TV monitor.

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department divers found Celina's body Monday near a hydroelectric dam that spans the Connecticut River between Celina's hometown, Stewartstown, and Canaan, Vt., ending an intense search that at its peak involved more than 100 federal, state and local law enforcement officers.

Young said "visible observations" of Celina's body in the water and once it was removed prompted investigators to consider her death suspicious, but she declined to be more specific. She also declined to comment on whether there were any suspects in the death or say who was in the girl's house the night before she was reported missing July 25. Police have said there was no sign of a struggle and there was no indications she ran away or someone took her.More...