As police continue working to identify a young girl who was found dead off the Massachusetts coast, they are responding to calls and messages from citizens speculating that she may have been a victim in a high-profile case.
The child's remains were found in an industrial-style trash bag last Thursday on Deer Island, a peninsula in Boston Harbor. Thursday, officials released a computer-generated image of her.
Among the tips state police have received are that she may have been Ayla Reynolds, who was 20 months old when she went missing in Maine in December of 2011; Caleigh Harrison, who police and family members now believe was swept out to sea in Rockport three years ago; and Aliayah Lunsford, who was 3 when she went missing in West Virginia in September of 2011.
"While we have to await forensic tests to absolutely rule them out, we are fairly confident none of them are our little girl," said Massachusetts State Police spokesperson Dave Procopio said in a statement.
The girl found on Deer Island is believed to be about 4, and authorities do not think she was there for a long time.
Procopio added that many other leads are still being investigated, and asked for citizens to continue calling state police with their ideas.
