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Polygraphs Given To Family Members In Search For Missing Detroit Girl

DETROIT (WWJ) - The mystery of what happened to five-year-old Mariha Smith of Detroit continues Tuesday afternoon. Police believe she was abducted. But new information has surfaced as the missing girl's family is given polygraphs.

Konesha Smith, mother of the missing girl, said she cannot remember anything about the disappearance of her daughter because she was drunk and passed out on a couch after a party at the home Saturday night. According to a police source, a polygraph test indicated Smith was being truthful.

But Smith tells a local newspaper that family members have failed a police polygraph test.

Smith tells The Detroit News that her sister Virginia Smith, her daughter's Aunt, failed the test and remains in Detroit Police custody.

Police are now investigating a possible link between Mariha's disappearance and the death of an unidentified girl whose burned body was found in an abandoned home nearby. DNA tests are being conducted on the body.

Friends and family are not giving up hope though, passing out fliers around the community with Mariha's picture on them.

Mariha was reported missing around noon Sunday from her westside Detroit home. Her mother, Konesha Smith, said she last saw Mariha when she put her and her three younger siblings down to sleep on the floor of their home on Burlingame in front of a fan that was in a window. She then noticed her daughter missing around noon the next day, and called police. She also noticed the front window was open.

An Amber Alert for Mariha remains active. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or Detroit police at 313-596-5900.

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