Richard Gootee, and Tori Fater

Evansville

The body of Aleah Beckerle has been found, but police are still searching for clues to determine who is responsible for her death.

Human remains found Monday in a vacant house on Evansville's South Side were identified as Beckerle during an autopsy conducted Wednesday by the Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office.

The discovery has not brought Beckerle’s family any sense of closure, said her great-aunt Laura Jackson. Only grief, and more questions.

"It's devastating to know that probably all these months she was right there," Jackson said.

Because the Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office has not ruled on cause or manner of death, police are not calling the case a homicide investigation, Evansville Police Captain Andy Chandler said at a news conference Wednesday. But Chandler said they are treating it as a criminal investigation now rather than a missing persons case.

"This is not the conclusion of the case,” Chandler said. “It is a new beginning."

The Beckerle family finally knows where Aleah is, Jackson said, but they don’t know how she got there or what happened to her.

“We’re going to find who did this. We’ve been promised that,” Jackson said. “The person who did this will be found. And they will face justice.”

Police are still asking the public to provide tips related to the case, including the tip that led detectives to search the vacant house where Beckerle's body was found.

Beckerle, who was nonverbal and wheelchair-bound, was reported missing from her East Iowa Street home on July 17. At the time of her disappearance, police stressed that she was dependent on constant care and medication to control seizures.

The place where Beckerle’s decomposing body was finally located was a white, rundown house located at 1628 S. Bedford Ave. County records show that the property is owned by an Evansville-based LLC named SNG Properties. Chandler said police went to the home Monday night after the department's detective office got a tip that there was a dead body inside.

Though multiple vacant homes had been searched as part of the investigation, the South Bedford Avenue house was not one of them, Chandler said.

Veteran police detective Brent Melton, the lead detective on the case, said Beckerle's disappearance has been one of the most trying cases of his career. In his pledge to continue to work the case until it is solved, he told reporters that, "Aleah Beckerle is a name that will never leave me."

"I’m going to continue to work as hard as I possibly can to find the person or persons responsible for her death," Melton said.

This summer, community members and outside search groups launched large-scale efforts to find any clues of Beckerle, to no avail. Searchers did find another dead body during one of the efforts.

Volunteers also covered the city with flyers with Beckerle’s face on them. Many of them were hung at area businesses.

The Evansville Police Department and the FBI also combed through an area of a Pike County landfill starting in September, searching for clues -- also to no avail.

The teen was reported missing by her mother, Cara Beckerle. The teen’s wheelchair was not taken. Before the public confirmation was released, police detectives went to the Beckerle home to notify family members that the body found in the Bedford Avenue home belonged to the 19-year-old.

Cara Beckerle was "terribly devastated," Jackson said. Family members and friends came to the house Wednesday to offer condolences and support to Aleah Beckerle's family. "There's lots of hugging going on."

The family has asked for privacy as they process their grief.

There was a false alarm in September when some remains that turned out to be that of an animal were found on South Weinbach Avenue near the Interstate 69 overpass.

At that time, police said they had received a tip that Beckerle's body could have been in that area.

Police said that while the discovery of Beckerle's body brings a degree of closure to the case, they are still working diligently to determine what happened to the woman. Public help is still being sought, Chandler said.

Just like he did in July, Chandler urged someone with "courage" to come forward so that this case can be closed sooner rather than later.

"Particularly to the individuals who are responsible for Aleah's death, come forward," he said. "We're going to find you. Why don't you come forward now so we can put this to rest."

Anyone with information can call the Evansville Police Department's detective bureau at 812-436-7979 or the anonymous WeTip hotline at 1-(800)-78-CRIME.