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Autopsy shows 'homicidal violence'

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 22, 2006

NORTH PORT - A 6-year-old girl found dead in the woods near her home last weekend was the victim of "homicidal violence" but was not sexually assaulted, the city's police chief said Thursday.

Chief Terry Lewis declined to be more specific in announcing preliminary results of an autopsy on Coralrose Fullwood, who disappeared sometime Sunday morning. She was found dead hours later near a home construction site two blocks away.

On Wednesday, authorities impounded a minivan belonging to Coralrose's parents and questioned her siblings. Several DNA samples have been sent away for testing, Lewis said. But he would not say whether investigators were focusing on the parents as suspects.

"We're not allowing ourselves to get tunnel vision. The laser beam isn't focused on one suspect. It's just as wide as it was Sunday," said the police chief.

Coralrose's father said he last saw her at 2 a.m. Sunday when he got home from his bartending job. The family noticed her missing at around 7 a.m., and a neighbor walking his dog found her body five hours later.

John Coleman, the family's attorney, said the Fullwoods have cooperated in the investigation.

A judge granted custody of four of Coralrose's siblings to her grandparents Tuesday, a day after the Department of Children and Families took the children from their home. The house was filthy and posed a threat to the children's health, according to a DCF report.

Also Thursday, a judge ordered that the siblings, ages 4 to 12, must have medical examinations, even though the family had objected. The children also will be evaluated for signs of sexual abuse.

Circuit Judge Rick De Furia said during a hearing that doctors need to "establish a baseline to establish what the medical condition of these kids is."

[Last modified September 22, 2006, 01:24:09]