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2007-11-30 05:31:52
By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press WriterFri Nov 30, 2:41 AM ET
A body found in Kansas appears to be that of a missing college student who led
a secret life as an Internet porn star, police said Thursday.
Authorities said the preliminary physical description of the body found about
50 miles east of El Dorado matches that of missing college student Emily
Sander. Investigators refused to give details about the state of the body or
how it was found.
Sander's case drew wide attention after it was revealed that she appeared nude
on a popular adult Web site under the name Zoey Zane. That site was temporarily
inaccessible Thursday, as were several sites that bill themselves as "fan"
sites of Zane.
But Police Chief Tom Boren insisted Thursday that Sander's Internet activity
had no connection to her disappearance.
"The issue of the Internet and the spinoff of that has been literally crippling
our investigation," Boren said.
Boren said the cause of death was not yet known. An autopsy is planned.
Sander, 18, was last seen leaving an El Dorado bar Friday with a man who has
been the focus of a nationwide search since police found large quantities of
blood in a Kansas motel room where he was staying.
Prior to finding the body, investigators said they had not found a link between
Sander and her activities as Zoey Zane. But publicity about her explicit photos
brought a flood of tips, many of them false leads.
Sander, who attended Butler Community College, left the bar with Israel
Mireles, 24. Authorities are looking for him and his 16-year-old pregnant
girlfriend.
The rental car Mireles was driving was found abandoned Tuesday in Vernon,
Texas, where he has relatives. Investigators interviewed family members and
planned to bring the vehicle back to Kansas for processing.
"We feel they know where he is at, but they haven't shared that with us," Boren
said.
On Thursday, searchers on foot and all-terrain vehicles were checking the tall
grass along each side of Highway 54 near Neal, Kan., as they traced the route
Mireles may have taken Saturday on the way to Baxter Springs to pick up his
girlfriend.
So far searches using dogs, planes, underwater equipment and divers at the
Walnut River dam have yielded no new evidence.
"We have about exhausted a lot of the resources we have until we can focus on a
particular area," Boren said.
Sander's grandmother, Shirley Sander, said the discovery of a body would "very
definitely" bring closure to the family.
"We had to know one way or another," she said in a telephone interview.