Police ID found body as missing college student

updated 2:35 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2007

WICHITA, Kan. - Police on Saturday identified a body found earlier in the week as that of a missing Butler Community College student.

The identification of the body of Emily Sander, 18, was confirmed by a forensic orthodontist, El Dorado Police Chief Tom Boren said.

The body was released to Sander's family after forensic examinations and an autopsy. The results of that examination and the cause of death were sealed by the county attorney's office, and police would not release details about the cause of death.

Police also said Saturday they were re-interviewing witnesses, family and associates of suspect Israel Mireles, 24 and his pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend. They said his whereabouts were still unknown, but they believed she was still with him.

Sander, 18, disappeared late Nov. 23 after leaving a bar with Mireles outside El Dorado, and police labeled Mireles a suspect in her disappearance.

The body was found Thursday about 50 miles east of El Dorado, along U.S. 54 near the Woodson County town of Toronto.

Close to the body, investigators found a bedspread that had been missing from Mireles' El Dorado motel room, Boren said. Investigators found a large amount of blood in the room.

Sander's case drew wide attention after it was revealed that she appeared on a popular adult Web site under the name Zoey Zane. In some photographs, she appears merely scantily clad in lingerie or cowgirl outfits. Other pictures, some of which require viewers to pay for, are more explicit, showing her nude, fondling herself and posing with other women.

Mireles' girlfriend is seven months pregnant. Investigators think she remains with Mireles "on her own volition, but investigators fear for her continued welfare, as well as that of her unborn child," Boren said in a statement Friday.

The rental car the pair were driving was found abandoned Tuesday in Vernon, Texas, where Mireles has relatives.

Sander's grandfather, Clem Sander of El Dorado, said Friday afternoon that relatives had begun preparing funeral arrangements.

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