Body of missing 5-year-old Nevaeh Adams found in SC landfill months after her mother’s murder

SUMTER, S.C. (WIS) - Police in Sumter broke the devastating news Tuesday that missing 5-year-old Nevaeh Adams was found dead, confirming her family’s worst nightmare.

Police believe 28-year-old Daunte Johnson stabbed the child to death and put her body in a dumpster back in August.

Investigators immediately went to area landfills and tracked down garbage trucks that may have transported trash from dumpsters in the area of the crime.

Police have been searching the Richland Landfill for Nevaeh’s body off and on for about two months.

Crews were recently back at the site on Screaming Eagle Road. On Friday, Oct. 18, police discovered human remains.

Those remains were DNA tested and determined to be little Nevaeh.

Back in August, when Nevaeh disappeared, the body of her mother, Sharee Bradley, was found by a family member in her apartment. Bradley had been stabbed to death, police said.

Police already charged Johnson with both Bradley’s and Nevaeh’s murders. Even before finding the child’s body, investigators said they had evidence suggesting she was dead.

• ‘She is not in that landfill’: Nevaeh Adams’ Family reacts to latest landfill search
• Police re-launch massive search of landfill to find body of 5-year-old Nevaeh Adams
• Case against man suspected of murdering Sharee Bradley, Nevaeh Adams moves forward
• Warrants: Sumter double murder suspect used large folding knife to kill mother, missing daughter

Nevaeh’s family desperately wanted to hold onto hope she was alive. Now that her remains were found, her father, Dupray Adams, said he is sad he didn’t get to see her one last time. He’s trying to hold on to his happy memories.

“When she was with me, she didn’t have a dull day,” he said. "Every video that I have, every picture that I have she was happy.”

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