Teen says he killed girl

The uncertainty is over for the family of Shelby Marie Cox. The sorrow begins.

The body of the 4-year-old girl missing since Monday was found early Saturday morning stuffed inside a green duffel bag hidden in a cabinet in a neighbor's storage shed. She had been smothered.

At the sight of the child's body being wheeled out on a gurney, residents' worst fears were realized.

"My God," said Wayne Ayres, a father of three, "she's been here all the time."

Dana Hutchison, his wife, Tana, and daughter, Tiffany, embraced and began to sob.

"It's hard to accept something like this," Dana Hutchison said. "Yesterday (Friday), we still had hope she was alive. It's just a terrible, terrible tragedy."

The nationwide search for Shelby ended almost where it began: next door to her family's mobile home. Police found the body where Jeremy Lipscomb Skocz, her 18-year-old neighbor, said it would be.

Skocz, who has been living with his biological father next door to the Cox family since May, has been charged with first-degree murder. Police said Skocz did not cry or show emotion after confessing.

Investigators followed a circular trail back to Skocz, the quiet teenager who hugged Heather Cox, Shelby's mother, after the girl's disappearance, then pretended to join the search.

Joseph Butler, an Intercession City 18-year-old who described himself as a close friend of Skocz's, said he and Skocz more than once searched the shed where Shelby's body was found.

"She wasn't there," Butler said. "I don't know where she was, but she wasn't in there."

Police know now from Skocz's confession that Shelby's body was wrapped in blankets and stashed in a bathroom closet for three days before it was moved to the shed behind the mobile home belonging to Skocz's biological father, Eugene "Bear" Lipscomb, and his stepmother, Marie.

Investigators found Shelby's pants and underwear in a bag in the Lipscomb home. The medical examiner is performing an autopsy to determine whether the girl had been sexually molested. It could take two weeks before the results are available.

Investigators were drawn to Skocz early in the search. Police were suspicious of Skocz's actions on the day of Shelby's disappearance, especially when he seemed to go out of his way to convince Shelby's mother that the child was not at his house.

Two days after Shelby's disappearance, Skocz was given a polygraph test. It indicated he was being deceptive. The investigation came back to Skocz after other leads proved futile.

"We went over everything and it led back to the kid," said Ed Bodigheimer, FBI supervisor of Orlando office. "There were unanswered questions about him that had to be resolved."

On Friday, Skocz was given another lie detector test by FBI agents, using questions formulated by the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit.

Around 7 p.m. Friday, Skocz confessed to killing Shelby Cox with a strange story about how she walked into the Lipscomb bathroom while he was showering. Fearful of what the other children in the house he was babysitting might think if they found him with the girl, Skocz said he smothered the girl's face with clothing.

According to a charging affidavit, Skocz said the girl was still breathing so he taped her mouth with duct tape, bound her hands and placed her face down in the full bathtub until she stopped moving.