UPDATE: Search for missing Fayetteville girl ends

The search for a missing Fayetteville girl comes to a halt.
   
This afternoon crews found a body believed to be of five year old Shaniya Davis off Highway 87 in Lee County.
   
Two people have been charged, including her 25 year old mother.
   
Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Davis, reported her daughter missing last Tuesday.
   
Over the weekend police arrested her and charged her with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for prostitution.

“We have located a body based on some information we received. We can confrim that the body is a small child,“ said Theresa Chance, Fayetteville Police spokeswoman.

With those words, the hopes of finding a safe 5 year old Shaniya Davis were suddenly crushed.

“We’ve got a lot of people at the scene who are really torn up,“ said Chance.

Police say crews found the body of a little girl off a road Southeast of Sanford in the central part of North Carolina.

They now believe it is the body of Shaniya.

Authorities say Shaniya was last seen Tuesday morning.  A surveillance camera caught a man carrying her into a Sanford hotel.

Police believe that man was Mario McNeill, who is now charged with kidnapping Shaniya.

Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Davis, made her first court appearance this afternoon facing charges of human trafficking and felony child abuse.

Authorties accuse her of selling her daughter into child prostitution.

As questions remain in Shaniya’s disappearance, information is slowly surfacing regarding her family situation.

Her father raised her for several years alone and said he decided to let Shaniya stay with her mother because she seemed to be on the right path.

“She had asked if she could be a mother and i felt that she was sincere in asking and felt i’d give her a chance,“ said Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya’s father.

A chance that may have turned into a heartbreaking ending.

Police are still waiting on a positive identification on the body.
   
They are waiting on the State Bureau of Investigation to exhume the body.