The body of Chelsea Bruck, the 22-year-old Michigan woman last seen at a Halloween party last year, has been found in a field in Monroe County. Bruck's mom had been tirelessly searching for her daughter for six months, and last month, police got a tip. Bruck's homemade Halloween costume was found at a vacant industrial site in Flat Rock April 5, and on Friday, a body was found at a heavily wooded site near Carleton, a few miles away, the Detroit Free Press reports. The Sheriff's Office revealed last night that the body was identified as Bruck's. An autopsy was inconclusive and a cause of death could take as long as a month to determine, but police say the case is a homicide and her body appears to have been at the site for months.
"I believe [the murderer] was familiar with the railroad tracks that are there" where Bruck's body was found, 12 miles from the Halloween party, the sheriff says. "In all likelihood, the crime was committed at or near where the body was located." Her body was found on private property, but the property owner is not a suspect; the remains were discovered after a dump truck got stuck and construction crews worked to free it, MyFox Detroit reports. "I want to thank everyone for their efforts," wrote a person identifying himself as Bruck's brother on the Help Find Chelsea Bruck Facebook page. "And while this may be the end of the search, it is also a new beginning. The beginning of the search for justice for my sister." (More missing person stories.)