A six-year-old girl who vanished from her home in northwestern Colombia has been found dead, bringing a tragic end to a week of search efforts that mobilized local authorities, drones and search dogs.
Michelle Dayana Henao disappeared on the morning of August 24 after leaving her house in Buriticá, a small rural municipality in Antioquia department, about an hour’s drive from Medellín. Her disappearance triggered an intensive search across the surrounding countryside, with teams combing rugged terrain using aerial drones and trained dogs in hopes of locating her.
On Monday, August 31 — exactly one week after she went missing — the Governor of Antioquia confirmed that Michelle’s body had been discovered in the rural outskirts of the municipality. Officials have not yet released details about the circumstances surrounding her death, and an investigation is reportedly underway to determine what happened to the child.
The case has drawn significant attention in the region, both for the scale of the search operation and for the devastating outcome after days of uncertainty for the girl’s family and community. Buriticá, known mainly for its colonial architecture and gold-mining history, became the focus of national headlines as search crews worked around the clock.
For more details on this developing story, read the full report from El Tiempo.
Image: BLM Oregon & Washington.