Tucson police sifted through tons of garbage at Los Reales Landfill on Friday but turned up no evidence that could be used in the case of a young girl whose decomposing body was found inside a North Side storage locker, an assistant chief said.
Police arrested Christopher Matthew Payne, 28, on Thursday in connection with the case and booked him into the Pima County jail on one count of first-degree murder and one count of child abuse.
Information from an interview with Payne led investigators to search the landfill, said Assistant Chief Roberto Villaseñor. He said he could not discuss what evidence investigators hoped to find at the landfill.
The body of the girl, who police say was 2 to 4 years old, was found Feb. 18 when the manager of a U-Store-It near East Prince Road and North First Avenue noticed a foul odor coming from a plastic tub inside a storage unit. The manager had begun clearing out the unit after the renter stopped making payments.
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More than 60 officers, detectives and recruits — including Pima County sheriff's deputies with dogs — searched the landfill for about eight hours Thursday night and Friday morning, said Decio Hopffer, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
There are no current plans to resume the search, Villaseñor said.
Police are still working to identify the young girl.
"We have a strong suspicion as to her identity, but we're waiting for forensic data to confirm that," Villaseñor said. Detectives are awaiting the results of DNA testing, he said.
Police did not disclose the relationship between Payne and the remains of the girl who was found in the storage locker.
Payne was not the renter of the unit but was involved in the rental, Villaseñor said. He has had numerous run-ins with the law in the past. Most recently, he was arrested last August on suspicion of possessing drug paraphernalia but failed to appear in court.
The Los Reales Landfill is at 5300 E. Los Reales Road, south of Interstate 10 and west of South Craycroft Road.
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