Tampa girl's remains not found in Penn. search

Tampa girl's remains not found in Penn. search

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TAMPA (FOX 13) -

It's been 30 years since Jennifer Marteliz vanished from her Tampa home. She was on her way home from school on November 15, 1982, when someone grabbed her.

For three decades, there has been no sign of her or the person responsible for her disappearance. Now, a witness says she may know where Jennifer is buried and who killed her.

The woman, identified as Anna Cummings, was just 11 when Jennifer disappeared. She says her neighbor Steve Visnosky also had a home in Tampa, five blocks from where Jennifer lived.

Cummings says around the time Jennifer was taken, she saw Visnosky -- who died in 1992 -- take a large garbage bag out of his car and bury it on his Pennsylvania property.

Detectives from Tampa, plus Pennsylvania state police and forensic anthropologists, just spent two days digging on the property. As of Friday evening, the search had wrapped up without any new discoveries.

Nancy Tunstall, Jennifer's aunt, told FOX 13 they hoped police wouldn't find anything.

"We are grateful for the lady, but at the same time, we are hopeful that this is not Jennifer and that we will see her again," she said.

But the family thanks the Tampa Police Department for keeping this case open.

"We're especially proud of the Tampa Police Department, that they are following the lead after all these years," Tunstall continued.

The family called Jennifer their "firecracker."

"The excitement in her body. She was just the cutest little thing," Tunstall recalled. "Anything she said, everybody stopped and watched her. Not somebody you would forget because she was so cute."

The family produced a movie, "She Could Be You," and her mom, Kathy, wrote a book called "Jennifer, Where are You."

"In the last 30 years, we've done everything possible," Tunstall added. "Kathy, for the first 10 years, did nothing but look for Jennifer. We put a lot of effort and time into producing the movie 'She Could Be You,' because we believe she's out there."

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