METAIRIE (AP) — Authorities believe they have found the body of aMetairie woman who disappeared in 2003 in her burned out vehicle on a remoteroad in Mississippi.
Cynthia Molina, then 40, disappeared in November 2003 and about twoweeks ago her car was found in woods off a rarely used dirt road in ruralMississippi. A body, burned beyond recognition, was in the front passengerseat.
DNA tests will be run to confirm the identity, but Sheriff Todd Kemp ofClarke County, Miss., said he was “90 percent sure” the body was Molina’s. Hesaid the car and body may have been there for a year or more.
The cause of death tentatively was listed as fire, but Kemp said itcould just as well have been by gunshot or stabbing. The body was toodecomposed to offer any clues.
A Mississippi landowner clearing land for timber production came acrossher car about three miles from the closest town, Shubuta, Miss., a ruralcommunity of 650 people, about a 3 1/2-hour drive northeast of New Orleans.
Kemp said the car was found deep in the woods beyond a rickety bridgethat had been condemned for vehicle traffic. The bridge was in such bad shapethat a bulldozer was used to clear a new road through the woods so a wreckercould remove Molina’s car.
“I am still holding out that one ray or hope that it wasn’t her in thecar,” her mother, Pamela Myers, said. “Maybe she sold it or gave it to someoneelse.”
Kemp said it may be impossible to extract DNA from the corpse, let alonecull from the scene the detailed forensic evidence needed to determine how thevictim died and who did it.
Family members said Molina, who was deaf and suffered from manicdepression, had often talked about moving to a new town and starting a newlife.
