Body of Missing S.C. Girl, 5, Is Found in Landfill 2 Months After Mother Was Killed

For two anguishing months, Dupree Adams waited for any word about his 5-year-old daughter, Neveah Lashay Adams, who disappeared after her mother was murdered at their South Carolina apartment in August.

Even though a suspect had allegedly confessed to killing the little girl and her mother, Sharee Bradley, 29, Adams held out hope that his daughter was somehow alive.

On Tuesday, Sumter Police announced that Neveah’s remains had been found four days earlier at the Richland Landfill in Elgin, which is about an hour and 20 minutes north of Sumter, where she and her mother lived and where they were allegedly killed, CNN and local station WTOC report.

“I know she’s in a better place,” her father told reporters on Tuesday, local station WIS-TV reports. “At least I know she’s not out there being harmed.”

The child was reported missing on Aug. 5, after her mother was found dead in their apartment, WIS reports.

Bradley’s 12-year-old son found his mother unresponsive inside the apartment, rolled up in a rug, according to investigators, WIS reports. He then went to the apartment manager, who called 911.

That’s when he said Neveah was missing.

Sumter Police Chief Russell Roark said Bradley had been stabbed multiple times in the face, head, and neck, local NBC affiliate WCNC reported at the time.

Authorities believe Neveah was also fatally stabbed.

Witnesses told police they saw Daunte Johnson, 28, leaving the apartment, CNN reports.

He was arrested after he allegedly told police he fatally stabbed Bradley and Neveah, saying he disposed of the child’s body in a nearby dumpster, WIS reported.

He was arrested on Aug. 26 and charged with two counts of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, WCNC eports.

He is also charged with possession of a stolen vehicle after he allegedly drove a car that belonged to a homicide victim in St. Louis, Missouri, WIS reports.

He allegedly confessed to driving the stolen car from St. Louis to Sumter, according to police, WIS reports.

When authorities reached the dumpster where Johnson had allegedly said he disposed of Neveah’s body, its contents had been emptied and brought to a local landfill, CNN reports.

Investigators spent two months going through 230 tons of garbage in the landfill, CNN reports.

Johnson’s public defender did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

It is unclear whether he has entered a plea. He remains in custody.

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He has a criminal record dating back 10 years, court records show, WLTX reports.

Now that Neveah’s remains have been found, Adams says he can rest knowing she isn’t being hurt.

While she was missing, he said he “wondered if someone’s harming her and her last moments of going through whatever she went through, what was she thinking? What was she feeling?” he said at the press conference,

“Those things is what breaks me down, but now that I know that she’s with the Father, that weight is lifted off of me.”