FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Remains of a toddler found buried in the Everglades probably are those of Julie Magliulo, a 3-year-old missing for almost a year, an assistant medical examiner said Friday.
Dr. Phillipe Dominguez, assistant Broward County medical examiner, said the examination showed asphyxia as the possible cause of death, which authorities now will investigate as a homicide.
'We have the dental age, the bone age, the pelvic bones of a female that all match Julie's age, height and hair, and clothes found at the scene also match what she was supposed to be wearing,' Dominguez said.
The bones are badly decomposed, but Dominguez said he is '98 percent' sure of the identity of the dead toddler.
Julie vanished June 8 while walking to a playmate's house around the corner from her home near North Lauderdale.
The disappearance triggered a massive search in the area and drew widespread publicity.
'That child, whether it's mine or somebody else's, is an unidentified child and it's a crying shame,' Brenda Magliulo, Julie's mother, said before the bones were identified. 'How many more do we have to have before something is done.'
Forty police cadets Friday searched for more clues at the site west of Fort Lauderdale where the bones were discovered by two construction workers who were out target shooting for the day.
The men found the skull in a brushy area between the city and the Everglades when looking for some rocks to jam under the tires of their truck, which had gotten stuck in the mud.
'I walked over to see what it was,' Mike Fletcher, 25, said. 'I didn't know what I had in my hand until I turned it around and saw the teeth. The top part of the forehead was missing. I went blank. I don't know if I set the skull down or dropped it.'
He said the rest of the bones were in a heap on top of a rotting white towel.
'They weren't in any kind of uniform order,' Fletcher said. 'They were all on top of that old material under the bones. It had rotted. The kid must have been rolled up in the towel or something. All the bones were piled on top of each other. The skull was sitting right on top of them.'
