Children's bodies packed into luggage, dumped in Florida canal

By the CNN Wire Staff

March 3, 2011 -- Updated 0309 GMT (1109 HKT)

The bodies were found a half-mile apart in the canal that separates Delray Beach from Boca Raton.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The bodies were found a half-mile apart in the canal
• They showed no obvious signs of trauma, a police spokeswoman said
• Investigators are asking the public for help and are checking missing persons reports

(CNN) -- Police are trying to identify the bodies of two children found stuffed into luggage and floating in a south Florida canal on Wednesday.
"We're devastated, and someone is missing these children," Sgt. Nicole Guerriero, a Delray Beach police spokeswoman, told reporters Wednesday evening. "Someone knows these children, and we need to know who these kids are."
The remains of two African-American children -- a girl between 6 and 10 years old and a boy believed to be 10 to 12 -- were found about six hours and a half-mile apart in the canal that separates Delray Beach from Boca Raton. The girl's body was found first, after a passerby alerted police to a duffel bag floating about midway across the canal; the boy's body turned up in a suitcase closer in as investigators combed the banks for evidence, Guerriero said.
Police are working on the assumption that the deaths are related and are asking the public to get involved.
"If anyone has not seen their grandchild, their niece, their nephew, please give us a call," Guerriero said.
The bodies showed no obvious signs of trauma, Guerriero told HLN's "Nancy Grace." The bodies had been in the water long enough to have been affected by the immersion but were still intact, she said.

An autopsy is planned, and investigators will return to the canal for a more extensive search on Thursday, she said. Meanwhile, she said investigators are checking missing persons reports in an attempt to identify the children.

RELATED TOPICS

• Florida
• Missing Children