Published: June 04, 2009 10:28 pm      

Remains identified as Wabash woman

Teenager was reported missing in 2006.

PERU — The skeletal remains found by a mushroom hunter in Miami County last month have been identified as a missing 18-year-old Wabash woman.

Wabash Police Detective Scott Long said dental records have identified the remains as Jordan Sopher, who was last seen visiting her parents’ home in Wabash. Long said Thursday that Sopher was reported missing in May 2006.

The remains were found in a rural wooded area near the Miami-Wabash county line, southeast of Peru. A forensic team from the University of Indianapolis determined they were human remains.

No cause of death was determined.

“We’re treating it as a homicide at this point until we prove otherwise,” he said.

Long said Sopher’s purse and cell phone were given to him by people where she stayed the weekend before she went missing.

He said all that was found in Miami County were the remains of the clothes she was wearing.

“We have no clues,” Long said. He said he has received several tips through Crime Stoppers, but they have not led to any breakthroughs in the case. He added that he plans to re-interview some people in the case.

“Even though it has been three years, we’re hoping someone will remember something,” he said.

Long said Sopher had just turned 18 and was planning to return to school to complete her high school education.

“She talked to a guidance counselor at Wabash High School,” he said. “She planned the week before she turned up missing to enroll at Wabash to finish her education.”

Long said Sopher was not known to the Wabash Police Department until she turned up missing.

“She was an average teenager,” he said. “She worked at Hardee’s.”

The Indiana State Police Peru Post is the lead agency in the case and is working with Long.

“I have a case file that goes back three years,” he said.

Long is encouraging anyone with information to call him at the Wabash Police Department at (260) 563-1111.

• Ken de la Bastide is the Kokomo Tribune enterprise editor. He can be reached at (765) 454-8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com