Although the search continues for missing 18-month toddler Lana Leigh Bailey, whose mother was amongst the three victims found dead at a Kansas farm this week, police think that the child may already be dead.
The police and FBI are taking on every lead to try and track the girl, Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richard says the toddler is "presumed dead" and that they will continue to search for her body.
Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting also said: "It is with a great deal of sadness that we all come before you today and to say that we presume that Lana Bailey is dead. We have still not recovered the body. That is why we are presuming that she is dead. We have information that leads us to believe that, but we still have not recovered the body."
A 27-year-old man, Kyle Trevor Flack, has been arrested in eastern Kansas in connection to the gruesome murders. It has not been revealed yet on how the victims were killed. The victims are Kaylie Bailey, 21, Andrew Stout, 30, and Steven White, 31.
Bailey's aunt made an emotional plea to the public yesterday to find her missing niece.
Lana's family were devastated upon finding out the news that she was presumed dead. "I hope and I pray that my granddaughter's big blue eyes stare at him in his face, in his sleep, in his waking hours every moment for the rest of his life," said Rachel Helms, Lana's grandmother. "She was a very loving little girl. She loved you through her eyes and you could tell it. When she looked at you, you couldn't help but smile."
Kaylie Bailey and her daughter Lana were initially reported missing by her family on May 3.
Bailey's car was recovered in Emporia, which is 50 miles away from where the bodies were found.
Three bodies were found on a farm by neighbors. The gruesome discovery was made Monday after a foul smell was detected by neighbors close to the site.
Kortni McGill and her friends Corey Schlotzhauer and Shona Osladil discovered the bodies when they went to the farm earlier this week to check on a friend who she hasn't heard from since April 25.
However, when she looked into the garage, she saw a tarp covering a dead body. It was weighed down by a cinder block. McGill and her friends originally went to the home on Sunday to see if they could find her friend.
They noticed the pungent smell coming from inside of the home, only to be initially dismissed by authorities as garbage. They even went to the garage where the source of the odor was, but dismissed that as garbage too.
However, McGill returned the next day with her two friends and did some sleuthing of her own, only to discover that the tarp was hiding a body underneath.
The tarp had a pile of baby clothes on top. When police were called, they found a burn barrel with baby clothes, a baby bottle and a sleeping bag.
"I reached down and saw teeth through the square in the cinder block. I said, 'Corey, there's a body here,'" McGill told the AP.
"This is three homicides on one very large scene," said Sheriff Jeff Richards during a news conference. "We have more than 40 detectives here with various agencies to investigate this crime. The manner of death is going to be important to this investigation, so I don't want to reveal anything that might be crucial to helping us solve this case."
