Rally held for 5-year-old Nevaeh killed 7 years ago, still no answers in murder

MONROE, MIch. (WJBK) - Not knowing who killed 5-year-old Nevaeh Bucanan still keeps her grandmother up at night.

"The whole community of Monroe needs closure, not just our family, the whole community of Monroe," Carla Nash said. "Technically, her murderer is still out there."

It has been nearly 7 years since Nevaeh disappeared outside her mother's Monroe apartment complex. In May 2009, she was found murdered 10 days later.

Justice for Nevaeh held a rally on Saturday, walking from St. Mary's Park to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department.

As the anniversary approaches, they want the mystery surrounding Nevaeh's death to be solved once and for all.

"The last thing we've heard on this case was that they have somebody in jail -- not enough to say we have somebody responsible, don't want to divulge any information. That is not enough," Smith said.

The 5-year-old's body was found outside of town in a rural area, buried in a shallow grave on a river bank. The medical examiner said she died from suffocating after inhaling dirt -- she was buried alive.

To this day, Nevaeh's case remains unsolved.

Two men, who were close to her mother and were also convicted sex offenders were arrested on probation violations and questioned about Nevaeh's murder, but never held responsible.

Risa Smith helped create Justice for Nevaeh, a group of volunteers that have been pleading for information from the public to solve this heart wrenching case.

In 2014, Monroe's local paper revealed a person police believed killed Nevaeh was in prison on unrelated charges. Smith claims investigators told her the same.

"We were told they were pretty sure he was responsible for the abduction and murder of Nevaeh, but that he was in prison on domestic violence charges," she said.