Police test DNA in search for missing girl

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Authorities hope DNA tests will help them determine if the headless body of little girl found in Missouri are those of a missing Florida girl.

Miami-Dade police said Friday there is a strong possibility that the remains are those of Rilya Wilson, a 5-year-old who disappeared more than a year before the state agency supervising her realized she was gone.

"We simply don't know and won't know for sure until we get the DNA results," Cmdr. Linda O'Brien said. "We really, desperately hope Rilya's still alive."

Palm prints from Wilson and the remains of "Precious Doe" did not match in an initial comparison, but authorities say they want to investigate further.

Miami-Dade police said homicide detectives are assisting in the case, but described that as a courtesy to Kansas City, Missouri, homicide investigators, who are checking to see if there's a connection between Rilya and remains found in Kansas City a year ago.

Miami-Dade police said it's premature to speculate on the fate of the 5-year-old, who was not reported missing by the Florida Department of Children and Family Services until more than a year after she was last seen. Her mother, Gloria Wilson, lost custody of Rilya because of a drug problem.

"We are still treating this as a missing persons case," said Miami-Dade Sgt. Peter Andreu

Miami-Dade investigators traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday to meet with Rilya's mother and to take a DNA sample to compare with the remains. That saliva sample was expected to be taken Friday or Saturday.

"We could have preliminary results within a week," said Kansas City Police Capt. Randy Hopkins. "I remain hopeful we could have a match."

Detective Ed Munn, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said investigators hope their conversations with the mother yield some new clues.

"We're going to talk to her and interview her to learn whether she has any additional information to help us find this girl," Munn said.

Hopkins said investigators also want to collect another set of fingerprints from Rilya's two siblings. Authorities want to compare those prints with ones that her grandmother -- the last family member to have custody of Riyla -- said belonged to the girl.

The Florida Department of Children and Family Services revealed Tuesday it lost track of Rilya, who was placed in the custody of the grandmother in late 1999 after the parental rights of both her mother and father were terminated.

DCFS records indicate the child's welfare was checked in required monthly meetings until January 2001, but neither the caseworker nor the caseworker's supervisor had any record of meetings after that date.

The child's absence came to light April 25 when a DCFS caseworker contacted the grandmother to set up an appointment to check on the 5-year-old. The grandmother told the caseworker that she had turned the child over to people she believed to be caseworkers in January 2001.

Police and Florida state officials say the woman is the child's paternal grandmother, but Wilson told The New York Times the woman was a godmother -- not grandmother.

-- CNN Correspondent Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.