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Wendell Body Identified as Missing Raleigh Teen

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Vebecca Jones
RALEIGH — A family that waited for months for their missing teen to come home was grieving Wednesday night. Police have identified abody found outside of Wendelllast month as 16-year-old Vebecca Jones.

Jones had been missing from her Raleigh home for more than six months. Now that investigators have identified her body, they want to know who killed her.

A man found the severely decomposed body one month ago in a ravine off Old Tarboro Road. Since then, investigators have been searching databases, while gradually shrinking the list of possible victims. Finally, they found dental records that matched those of Jones.

Jones lived on South East Street in Raleigh. Her family said they last saw her alive the first weekend of September 1998. A missing persons investigation turned up nothing. Now police have something to go on.

"Now we know who the victim is, and we need to trace her last known activities before she died," says Major Danny Bellamy with theWake County Sheriff's Department.

Investigators say pieces of a plastic grocery bag may help them discover just what happened the night Jones was killed.

"The bag was associated the body, we think it may have come to the crime scene with the body," Bellamy said. "We're trying to find out what store used this type of bag."

Bellamy says he wants to hear from anyone who saw Vebecca at that store, and who she was with at the time. Anyone with information should call the Wake County Sheriff's Department at(919) 856-6880.

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