Lord's family hadn't heard from her since the morning of July 5, when she called home from a train station in downtown Camden. She had spent the July 4 holiday at a family barbecue in Collingswood, N.J., and was headed home, her family said.
Yet surveillance cameras showed Lord getting off the train in Philadelphia, picking up what appeared to be clothes from a woman, then heading back to Camden on the train, according to police.
Almost from the moment she went missing, Lord's family believed she was abducted. They blasted police on both sides of the Delaware River, claiming cops weren't doing enough to find her. Lord's mother, Desiree Caruso, appeared on national television and said police had written her daughter off as a "junkie." Lord once struggled with drug addiction, but had been "clean for months" and found strength from her daily Bible readings, her family said.
Yesterday's grim discovery further fueled her family's fury. They argued that police - not her uncle - should have been the ones to find her.
"Them cops didn't find nothing - not a damn thing. He did," said Lord's grandfather, Vincent Caruso, gesturing toward Morales. "Thank God for him."
Camden Police Inspector Mike Lynch said officers assisted the family yesterday as they fanned out on Camden's streets, handing out fliers and asking residents whether they had seen Lord over the last two weeks.
"The Camden Police Department has been actively assisting the Collingdale Police Department," Lynch said.
Collingdale Police Chief Robert Adams, whose department was criticized by Lord's family in the news media, said the discovery was a "horrible conclusion."
