CALDWELL, W.Va. — State police believe a body found downstream from White Sulphur Springs on Tuesday is likely Mykala Phillips, the 14-year-old flood victim missing since the June flood that killed 23 people.
The state medical examiner is attempting to identify the body, state police spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous told MetroNews.
“It’s quite possible (Phillips),” Baylous said. “But at this point we just cannot come out and say that’s who it is. We need to let the medical examiner’s office make a final determination.
“If it is this young lady or whoever it may be, we’d like to give their family some closure.”
The body was discovered by cadaver dogs about 4 p.m. Tuesday near U.S. Route 60, some six miles from where Phillips went into the water June 23. The remains were under a propane tank, police said.
Phillips, scheduled to begin her freshman year at Greenbrier East High School, was swept away in raging Howard’s Creek as she, her father and two brothers tried to wade through the water. They tied each other together with extension cords but her cord broke loose.
Fifteen of the 23 flood victims were killed in Greenbrier County. All have been accounted for with the exception of Phillips, whose friends and family remembered her in funeral services less than two weeks ago.