Body ID’d as DiBattiste

Human remains found nearly four weeks ago in a wooded area near county road 600 South are those of Brianna DiBattiste.
DNA testing confirmed the body found Sept. 1 on land owned by Jay County Conservation Club was the 25-year-old missing Dunkirk woman, according to Jay County Prosecutor Wes Schemenaur.
The testing took longer than initially anticipated because of the condition of the body, Schemenaur said.
Based on evidence collected at the scene, officials preliminarily identified the body as DiBattiste, who went missing after leaving her father’s Dunkirk home June 16.
“Investigators were confident upon discovery of the body that it was in fact Ms. DiBattiste based on artifacts found near the body at the scene, and the family was informed accordingly. Having the DNA results confirms those initial observations,” he said in a statement.
The investigation of her disappearance lasted more than two months and involved multiple law enforcement agencies.
Police checked her phone record and discovered it hadn’t been used since she went missing.
Between her disappearance and when the body was found, officers from Jay County Sheriff’s Office, Dunkirk Police Department, Albany Police Department, Indiana State Police and Muncie Police Department followed leads and tips that took them all over East Central Indiana and into Ohio.
In mid-August, police searched a house in Muncie and a nature preserve near Upland after a convicted felon told investigators DiBattiste’s body was left in those locations. The search expanded to an area near the Big Blue River in northeastern Henry County after the same man, Curtis Ray Neal, told investigators her body was there.
Following the mid-August search for DiBattiste, Neal, of Dunkirk, was charged with obstruction of justice and false informing in Delaware County.
At autopsy was performed the week the body was found, but results and a cause of death may take three months to be released. The case remains under investigation by the Indiana State Police, Albany Police Department, Dunkirk Police Department and the Jay County Sheriff’s Office.