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FROM STAFF REPORTS

Arkansas City Police said Tuesday afternoon they had found a female body and pulled the car of Jodi Sanderholm from the Cowley State Fishing Lake.

The Cowley College student had been missing since Friday.

Police said they are also preparing charges against "a known suspect."

In a press release police said they found what is believed to be Jodi's body in southeast Cowley County Tuesday morning. At about noon, her car was pulled from the lake. She was apparently not found in the car.

The press release states that trackers from Arkansas City and Burden fire departments located a human female body that they believe is Sanderholm.

Investigators from the Arkansas City Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation were processing the scene Tuesday around the body and making preparations to remove the body and transfer it to the Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center in Wichita for identification and autopsy .

The vehicle will be removed to an undisclosed location for storage and processing.

Two wreckers from Bruton's Towing Service left the lake area empty-handed shortly after 3 p.m. An hour later, a flat bed truck from Bruton's arrived and within 30 minutes, the truck was coming back up the hill, carrying Jodi Sanderholm's black Dodge Stratus, lake water still dripping from the back bumper.

Sheriff departments from Cowley, Butler and Sedgwick counties were on site, as were officers from the Kansas Highway Patrol. The Arkansas City Police Department and the Cowley County Attorney's Office are preparing the charges.

Interim Ark City Police Chief Sean Wallace said the investigation continues and that if anyone has any information they believe might be helpful they can call (620) 441-4444 or 1-800-KSCRIME.

Sanderholm was last seen at Subway in Ark City Friday afternoon and her car was last spotted minutes later headed east on Kansas Avenue, family and police have said.

Police would not identify the "known suspect" but over the weekend but acknowledged they were questioning a man who was in jail on charges unrelated to Sanderholm's disappearance.

The man was known to be a "groupie" of the Tigerette Danceline, of which Jodi was a member. Police were aware of complaints from the danceline members against him, Wallace said Sunday.

Wallace on Tuesday declined to confirm or deny whether that same man is the suspect.

He said he planned to speak with the county attorney and city manager today and possibly hold a press conference to release more details on Wednesday.

The man police were questioning is at the Cowley County Jail in Winfield on $33,000 bond for three charges, Sheriff Bob Odell said, $29,000 of that was for false impersonation of a police officer, $3,000 for bond revocation related to a misdemeanor theft, and $1,000 for disorderly conduct at the time he was arrested for impersonation around Jan. 1.

He was not taken to jail upon arrest because he complained of chest pains and was taken to the local hospital, police have said. He was picked up and taken into custody sometime over the weekend when police decided to question him about Sanderholm.

Odell said Tuesday afternoon that the man had not been charged in connection with the Sanderholm case.

The < I>Traveler< I> is not printing the man's name because no official source has identified him as the suspect in question.

Reached by phone Tuesday, mother Cindy Sanderholm referred all questions to the police. "I cannot say anything," she said.

In the press release, Wallace added that "it is imperative that the press and civilians stay out of areas where police investigators are working as their presence will only hinder their work and could possibly destroy evidence."