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HOUSTON (AP) — The search for a 14-year-old Houston-area girl who had disappeared after her father was found fatally shot in a rural area north of the city ended Friday after police announced a body found earlier this week is that of the missing teenager.
A decomposing body found in west Houston on Wednesday afternoon was identified as Adriana Coronado, said Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva. The body was lying in an open field a few feet from the road.
Adriana was identified through fingerprint verification by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
A cause of death for the teenager has not yet been determined, Silva said.
The girl was last seen on Saturday in the Houston suburb of Katy, where she lived. Investigators believe Adriana might have been with her father, Caesar Vladimir Coronado, when he was killed. His body was found Sunday about 80 miles north of Houston in Walker County. The father's burned pickup truck was found near Conroe, 45 miles south of his body.
The Walker County's Sheriff's Office on Thursday released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case. The video showed an unidentified heavyset man leaving the father's truck in Conroe Sunday night. The truck is driven off screen and a few seconds later, a burst of light can be seen coming from the direction of the truck. Authorities believe the burst of light was when the truck was set on fire. The man can be seen running away from the direction of the truck and later seen running down an alley.
Investigators said the man might have been picked up by a dark-colored SUV.
Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae has said that investigators don't have a motive in the case and don't know what the father was doing in Walker County.
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