Coroner: 5-year-old Mississippi girl found dead in abandoned trailer had been strangled

GULFPORT, Miss. – A coroner says a 5-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned trailer in Mississippi had been strangled.

Janaya (juh-NAY-uh) Thompson was last seen by her family Wednesday night outside their apartment in Gulfport. A search dog helped find her body Thursday morning in the bathroom of a trailer that was about a five-minute walk from the apartment complex.

Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove said Friday that Janaya died of "asphyxiation due to strangulation." He would not release other details from an autopsy.

Gulfport Police Chief Leonard Papania said two men were being questioned as "persons of interest" in the capital murder investigation, but neither had been charged in the child's death. The investigation continues.