Skeletal Remains Identified As Missing 19-Year-Old's
MINERAL WELLS (CBSDFW.COM) – Skeletal remains found Thursday in a remote part of Mineral Wells belong to Krishonda Townsend, a 19-year-old mother who went missing in July 2010, Palo Pinto County Sheriff Ira Mercer said.
Mercer said dental records confirmed the remains to be Townsend's.
"The body was found in a remote location and didn't get there by accident," he said.
A prospective land buyer came across a human skull and bones Thursday afternoon while looking over the 100-acre plot, Mercer said.
Townsend was last seen in the early-morning hours of July 5, 2010. She spent the Fourth of July holiday with friends and posted "I got this" to her Facebook page, the Mineral Wells Index reported Friday.
She then slid into a friend's car and the two drove away from a home off U.S. Highway 180. Shortly after midnight, Townsend text-messaged her mother to say she was on her way home. She never arrived.
The 19-year-old's car was found the next day in downtown Mineral Wells with its doors swung open. The car had been rifled through, and police found nothing of significance inside, authorities said then.
Shonda, as her friends and family called her, was a mother to a young boy. Her family teamed with authorities and private groups to conduct searches for her. Her face graced billboards around Minerals Wells and Gibtown, where she was from.
The CUE Center for Missing Persons volunteered its efforts to find her, hosting a search in April. The North Carolina-based nonprofit returned just last week to hold a vigil as part of its On The Road To Remember Tour, which crisscrosses the country to bring awareness to missing persons cases that have gone cold or received little media coverage.
A website titled Help Find Krishonda Townsend has been regularly updated with news articles and images from vigils and searches since she went missing. The most recent post was Saturday, with a copy of the Mineral Wells Index article that reported the forensic findings.
Despite dozens of interviews, police have not arrested a suspect. Townsend's remains were found miles from where she went missing.
