(CNN) — The body of a missing 5-year-old girl has been found in North Carolina, police said Monday.
Theresa Chance, public information officer of the Fayetteville Police Department, confirmed the girl’s body was discovered.
A statement from Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine said positive identification was being sought for the recovered body. In a separate e-mail to CNN, Fayetteville police said the body found was that of the missing girl, Shaniya Davis.
About 200 people had been searching for the child’s body after “reliable information” indicated that she might be dead, according to Fayetteville police.
Searchers located the body shortly after 1 p.m. ET, Chance told reporters. People at the scene, including searchers and police officers, were “torn up,” she said.
The search focused on land near a roadway because “reliable information received that the body of Shaniya Davis may have been dumped there,” a police statement said.
Investigators had been searching for Shaniya for several days.
