Police: 'Miracle' girl rescued after being buried alive
Suspect, 17, will be charged as adult
 |  Suspect Milagro Cunningham, 17, could face life in prison if convicted. |
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 Officer describes finding missing Florida girl who had been buried alive.
 Police say the suspect told them the girl was abducted.
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LAKE WORTH, Florida (CNN) -- Police said Monday it was a miracle that a missing 8-year-old girl was alive after being buried in an abandoned landfill in Lake Worth, south of West Palm Beach.
The Delray Beach girl reportedly was in good condition after police found her Sunday. She was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, said Lake Worth Police spokesman Dan Boland.
"We had some luck and a lot of good police work," said Police Chief William Smith, crediting about 100 law enforcement officers for saving the girl's life.
Searchers found the girl inside a yellow recycling bin, which was inside a 30-foot trash container.
"The [recycling bin's] lid was flipped open," said Lake Worth police Sgt. Mike Hall. "And inside the Dumpster was a pile of rocks, boulders. And you could see a hand in there."
Boland said the girl "was left for dead."
Authorities have detained a suspect, Milagro Cunningham, 17, whom they said the girl identified as her attacker.
The suspect will be charged as an adult, said Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County state attorney's office.
Boland said Cunningham will be charged with attempted murder, sexual battery on a child under 12 and false imprisonment of a victim under 13. He could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Boland said Cunningham confessed to all three charges.
"If I could put my hands around his neck, he would be dead," the girl's mother told The Palm Beach Post. "He left my daughter to die."
The suspect will make his first court appearance Monday, Boland said. He is being held at the Juvenile Assessment Center in West Palm Beach.
Boland said the suspect lived with the girl's godmother, a few blocks from the landfill.
The girl had been staying at the home a short time. The relationship between the suspect and godmother was not immediately known.
Cunningham reported the girl missing before 4 a.m. ET Sunday, describing abductors and the car they supposedly drove, said Smith, the police chief. "That is bogus," Smith said. "It did not occur."
Investigators saw inconsistencies in Cunningham's story and kept him close at hand, authorities said.
Police found the girl about 10:30 a.m. Boland said that initially the girl didn't respond when officers called out to her, but they then saw a finger move.
Hall was among the searchers. "As far as I'm concerned, Sgt. Hall's a hero," Boland said.
"Everybody got goose bumps. It was just unbelievable," Boland said. "Everybody was so happy she was found alive."
He said the girl weighs about 80 pounds.
Smith said it was clear from where the girl was found that her attacker did not expect her to survive.
A fence with a locked gate surrounds the landfill, closed more than a decade ago, Boland said. But the fence has holes in it, he said.
"We believe it was a sexual assault and possible attempted murder," FBI Special Agent Mike Driscoll said. "He intended to leave her there, and she wasn't going to get out of the situation.
"She was in a position that you wouldn't think anyone could survive," he said.
CNN's Susan Candiotti and Rich Phillips contributed to this report.
