LENOX TOWNSHIP (WWJ) - The massive search effort to recover a missing teen's remains from a landfill in Metro Detroit has officially entered its second phase, officials with the Detroit Police Department announced on Friday.
Despite the sweltering heat, Phase 2 of "Operation Justice for Zion" started on Wednesday, June 15, at Pine Tree Acres landfill in Macomb County.
Officials have been searching for Zion Foster, 17, for several months before zeroing on the dump site after Foster's cousin told authorities that he put her body into a dumpster after she died while smoking marijuana with him in January.
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It had been over two weeks since officers began picking through trash at the landfill in the search for Foster; they believe the remains could be buried about 75 feet below the debris.
Officials said Phase 2 will involve searchers digging out layers of trash in order to get to the target area. The garbage collected will then brought to a site and spread out on two 50’x50’ search decks where crews will sift through the rubbish to find evidence.
"Once the debris is cleared, it will be removed," officials said in a press release. "Then another section of the search area will be placed onto the decks to be searched."
Phase two is expected to take about five days; officials have said the overall search effort could take six to eight weeks to conclude.
“We’re going to do everything we possibly can to bring some degree of closure and justice to this family," said DPD Police Chief James White in an earlier press conference.
So far, police have not revealed any finds with the exception of an envelope with an address in the area where the dumpster suspected to have held Foster's body was located in Detroit.
“If the victim is here, this is the area she will likely be in," White said.
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