ELGIN, S.C. — Law enforcement continue to search through landfills and areas around the Lantana Apartments in Sumter to find five-year-old Nevaeh Adams.
Chief Russel Roark and the Sumter Police Department have been searching for the little girl since Monday night.
"It's a tragedy for our community. It's a tragedy for a family. This cuts to the core of who we are as a community," said Roark.
Officers say Daunte Johnson has admitted to killing the little girl and her mother and dumped the child's body in the garbage.
"There was a timeline in there whereby the dumpster was taken from the property, dumped into a truck and replaced, and all of that garbage went to the county landfill,” explained Roark. “We immediately contacted the county landfill and located nine vehicles, nine trucks, that were scheduled to go to the transfer station in Richland County."
The information given by Johnson to investigators have led law enforcement to the landfill off Screaming Eagle Road in Elgin. Chief Roark says the landfills have been corporative and helpful throughout the search.
The department says cadaver dogs and officers are going though least 230 tons of garbage to help find the little girl.
"As of right now, we have not located Nevaeh. We keep hope that perhaps she's still alive,” said Roark. “We're going to continue to search and continue to take information."
The department says they were not actively searching in any of the landfills on Wednesday.
They've shifted their focus to the Lantana Apartment area but they may go back to the landfills later on.