The Camden County Prosecutor's Office confirmed the identity of the 23-year-old Delaware County mother's body that was found by her family in Camden Sunday.
The body of Jenna Lord, who went missing at a PATCO train station July 5, was found in a vacant lot in Camden Sunday, according to family members.
More than 50 family members and friends were searching for Jenna Lord Sunday and contacted NBC Philadelphia after they found the young mother’s body in a lot on 5th Street between Ramona Gonzalez and Pine streets in Camden Sunday.
Though the family says they found and positively identified Lord’s body by the tattoo on her arm and her clothes, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office waited until Monday morning to confirm the Lord’s identity. They said the body is extremely decomposed.
Lord disappeared after she was dropped off at a PATCO train station in Camden after a family 4th of July barbecue in Collingswood, N.J.
According to Lord’s aunt, Kimmy McArdle, family members had been searching in Camden for about two hours Sunday when her uncle discovered her body in the vacant lot. McArdle said that Lord’s body appeared burned and she was wearing the same outfit she had on the night she went missing.
“Devastated. We just didn’t want to believe it,” McArdle said.
The family called 911 and the police arrived at the scene soon after Sunday afternoon at about 3:30 p.m. Residents said the vacant lot where Lord was found is a haven for drug users and prostitutes.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know how Jenna wound up there, Lord’s uncle Bert Kline told NBC Philadelphia. “She was over…for a family barbecue and her last whereabouts that we saw from surveillance was, you know, at the train station.”
McArdle said that before family members found the body, they spoke to several people who had seen Lord.
The Camden County Prosecutor's Office will be releasing an autopsy report some time Monday.
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The family also questioned police's role in the search for Lord. But officials from the Camden Police Department said they committed resources to the search.
"In addition to investigative efforts and continuous radio police broadcasts, Camden City police officers were on foot, distributing flyers and searching with family members during yesterday's discovery," the department said in a statement.
The statement went on to say that the department is continuing to investigate the cause of death.
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