The Ohio family of a 2-year-old missing girl said Monday that they want to bring her remains home from Texas after she matched a sketch of a dead toddler nicknamed "Baby Grace."
Authorities are awaiting DNA test results on the body but have tentatively identified the girl as 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers of Spring, Texas, said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff's Department. Baby Grace was found by a fisherman inside a blue plastic utility box that washed ashore along the Gulf Coast on Oct. 29.
Sheryl Sawyers, Riley's paternal grandmother, told reporters that she called Texas authorities after seeing the sketch released by police that resembled her granddaughter. Sawyers held a Elmo doll at the press conference, which she recently bought as a Christmas present for Riley.
“Riley needs to be brought home,” said Laura DePledge, an attorney for the Sawyers family. “The family needs some closure.”
DePledge told FOX News that they are 99 percent sure that "Baby Grace" is Riley Sawyers. Sawyers would have turned 3 on March 11.
Authorities arrested a couple in connection to the case who have a missing child. The missing girl's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, were charged with one count each of injury to a child and tampering with physical evidence.
"She's still our little girl, she now has a family," Tuttoilmondo said at a press conference. "She has people that will care of her and make sure that a box in West Galveston Bay is not where she ended her life."
Click here for photos.
Click here for more from MyFOXHouston.com.
Click here to visit Baby Grace's Web site.
Riley's parents — Kimberly Trenor and Robert Sawyers — never married, but stayed together after the pregnancy before separating in May, DePledge said.
Trenor left Ohio with Riley earlier this year to move to Texas to be with Zeigler after meeting him on the Internet.
Riley was last seen alive three or four months ago, Tuttoilmondo said.
Trenor and Zeigler reportedly told relatives that Riley was taken in July by someone claiming to be an Ohio social worker. They never reported Riley's disappearance to police.
A sheriff's deputy and an FBI agent told family members of Riley in Ohio Sunday that they believed Baby Grace was Riley.
"We simply wanted to ensure personal notice and continue with the investigation of this tragic death," Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said.
"Could somebody go check to see that she's OK?" Sawyers said she asked police. "Then I get the call saying that she says she doesn't have the baby."
Baby Grace had been described as between 2- and 3-years-old, according to forensic dental examination. She is white, 32 to 35 inches tall and 25 to 30 pounds.
She was found with waist-long, wavy blond or light brown hair, and was wearing a Target-brand pink, flowing skirt; a pink or red shirt; and white light-up tennis shoes with purple flowers.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox