Public Interest

Breanna Sharp, 13, died in a stairwell. No one reported her missing. No one seemed to care.

Today 8:01 AM

By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com

Buried six feet beneath the earth, Jane Doe 08-8093 lay inside a vault with three other bodies in an unmarked grave. ... No one came to visit or set out flowers above. Grass grew and snow fell for three years on her cheap wooden casket, her skin and organs began to decay until only her skeleton remained.

Then, one spring day in 2012, a noisy backhoe rumbled to life and began jabbing at the dirt above. Chains were wrapped around the vault. Jane Doe was pulled to the surface. The casket lid slid off and for the first time in a long time, light shined on the mystery that brought her here. ... A femur bone was extracted and Jane Doe was identified as Breanna Sharp, a 13-year-old who went missing in 2008, though she wasn’t reported missing until a year later when police contacted her mother, Sirbrina Sharp.

Breanna’s body was found in the stairwell of a vacant Detroit apartment building, a TV cable cord wrapped around her neck, some bruising on her body and possibly pregnant. ... Detroit police and the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office investigated. Within 24 hours it was ruled a suicide by hanging – a determination some of her family believes is wrong.

They think she was killed.

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