– A 17-year-old girl who went missing on Saturday night was discovered dead Tuesday morning not far from her damaged automobile.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office believes the body discovered at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday is that of Daniela Velazquez.
Brown County Sheriff’s Capt. Dave Poteat said the corpse was discovered in a remote location on the 2600 block of
Day Street, also known as State 96, in the community of Wrightstown. Sheriff’s authorities said there is no evidence
that the death was the product of foul play, but they will wait for the findings of an autopsy before determining the
cause of death.
The body was discovered a quarter- to half-mile from Daniela’s car, which allegedly “went off the road” sometime
between 3 and 6 a.m. Sunday on Blake Road, near State 96, before the road was plowed. A state trooper requested a
welfare check after discovering Daniela’s vehicle in a ditch at 2:30 p.m. Sunday; her keys and wallet were inside the
car, but her shoes and phone were outside. She had on a hoodie and pajama bottoms.
“She was definitely not dressed for the weather,” Poteat explained. “Being outside in conditions much like they are
today for any extended period of time is going to results in a fatality in a short period of time.” According to the
National Weather Service, the temperature in Green Bay at 5 a.m. was roughly 12 degrees with a wind chill of minus 4.
Poteat said there is no evidence the teen was with anyone, and the death looks to be the product of a terrible accident.
He extended “sincere sympathies for her family and friends.”
Saturday night, the adolescent chatted in person with her mother and over the phone with a friend in Florida, where
she had previously lived. Daniela did not show up for work at 10 a.m. on Sunday, and her mother reported her
missing at 2:41 p.m.
Sheriff’s officers do not believe she was currently enrolled in school. Authorities claimed there was no evidence that
she attempted to summon help using her phone.
Authorities deployed a drone to hunt for the teen during daylight hours on Sunday and Monday.
“We do know looking at drone footage from previous days that we did fly over those areas, but we still were not able
to see the body from that video footage even knowing where she was recovered,” Poteat went on to say. “That
basically just because of branches, shadows … (she was) basically concealed by that.”
Sheriff’s officers do not believe she was currently enrolled in school. Authorities claimed there was no evidence that
she attempted to summon help using her phone.
On Monday, a police dog found an article of clothing that matched what Daniela was wearing.
On Tuesday, extra people used snowmobiles and ATVs to cover more ground faster and narrowed the search area
around where the clothing item had been discovered. Overall, authorities searched about 40 acres for each location
where the vehicle was recovered.