UPDATE: Body of Missing Toddler Found; Father Accused Of Selling Her For 10K

The body of a missing 2-year old girl who was allegedly kidnapped by an Uber driver was found dead at a park near Pittsburgh, PA.

More details unfolded around this case. According to authorities, the girl’s father Paul D. Johnson and the woman charged with kid­nap­ping the child had been in a ro­man­tic re­la­tion­ship — and she said they sold baby girl for 10K.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

In­di­ana County Dis­trict At­tor­ney Patrick Dough­erty said at a press con­fer­ence Tues­day eve­ning that search­ers had found the body of Nalani John­son at a park in Bur­rell Town­ship.

“We can con­firm that the miss­ing child was found here in Pine Ridge Park in In­di­ana County. This is an on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion. The info we can pro­vide is very lim­ited,” the DA said.

“We are work­ing hand in hand with state po­lice and Al­le­gheny County po­lice and the dis­trict at­tor­ney’s of­fice. The FBI has also been here and is as­sist­ing.”

Be­fore con­clud­ing the brief press con­fer­ence with­out tak­ing ques­tions from re­port­ers, Mr. Dough­erty said an au­topsy would be con­ducted on the child’s body on Wed­nes­day.

“Ob­vi­ously un­til we have some more in­for­ma­tion on the cause and man­ner of death, we can’t give you much at this point, but we are work­ing dil­i­gently and we are work­ing to­gether,” he said. “This is a co­op­er­a­tive ef­fort be­tween Al­le­gheny County and In­di­ana County to get the best out­come and de­ter­mine what hap­pened to this child.”

Sharena Nancy, 25, was in cus­tody in Al­le­gheny County, charged with kid­nap­ping a mi­nor and other fel­o­nies in con­nec­tion with Nalani’s dis­ap­pear­ance Satur­day. The child would have turned 2 this month.

In in­ter­views with po­lice af­ter her ar­rest, Ms. Nancy claimed that Mr. John­son in­structed her to hand off Nalani to a woman along Route 22 who would flag her down. She said he was sell­ing his daugh­ter for $10,000.

Superintendent McDonough said there was noth­ing to cor­rob­o­rate Ms. Nancy’s ver­sion of events.

“She’s pro­vided a num­ber of state­ments to us,” he said.

Meanwhile, Johnson has been telling authorities that he was riding with Nalani and a pal, Justin Rouse, in Nancy’s Toyota Yaris when she stopped the car at an intersection in Penn Hills, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Johnson got out and when he went to retrieve Nalani, Nancy allegedly drove off, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the newspaper.

The dad said he called Nancy’s cellphone to no avail and then called police, who issued an Amber Alert.

Nancy’s car had both Uber and Lyft stickers.

Uber insists that no one with Nancy’s name used the app over the weekend, and Lyft said the incident did not happen on its platform, adding that the “allegations are deeply disturbing.”

This is so heartbreaking and not the outcome we hoped for — however, some things aren’t adding up. The investigation is still ongoing and more details will be provided at a later time.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on this case can call the Al­le­gheny County po­lice tip line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS (1-833-255-8477).

Rest in peace, Nanlani..