ZEBULON, Ga. -- An 8-year-old girl whose body was found in a neighbor's yard apparently was killed before she was mauled by two pit bulldogs, state authorities said Thursday.
'We don't have any real hard suspects,' said Inspector Bonnie Pike of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
'We have people we're looking at.'
She said that Charles Sewell, 34, owner of the mobile home where the body of Renee Smith was found Sunday, was questioned and released after agreeing to undergo a polygraph examination.
'I didn't do it, I wasn't there,' Sewell said.
Pike said investigators believe the child was dead before the dogs attacked her.
GBI agent Charles Stone said investigators have ruled out accidental death.
'At this point, we don't think the death was an accident,' he said. 'There are some circumstances surrounding the death that are unusual.'
Smith lived less than a mile away from Sewell's home in Pike County, 80 miles south of Atlanta, with her parents, a stepbrother and a younger sister.
Denise Futch said her daughter rode her bicycle to visit Sewell's stepson, Martin, at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
When the girl did not come home a few hours later, the Futches went to look for her and discovered her bicycle outside the house, but no one was home. They returned home and repeatedly called Sewell throughout the day and no one answered.
'If Renee had been in that yard, I would have seen her,' Denise Futch said.
That night, Sewell showed up with Smith's bicycle, saying he had not seen her all day because he was at his mother's house in nearby Griffin.
Shortly after, Sewell returned and said he had found the girl's body in his backyard.
