Police: Man claims he buried girl
Two charged with 1969 murder of a 3-year-old
SANTA ANA, California (AP) -- A man arrested on charges he helped kill a 3-year-old girl more than three decades ago told authorities he buried the body in California before the family abruptly moved out of state, a detective said Tuesday.
James Michael Kent, 62, said in a videotaped statement last week that Michelle Pulsifer was buried in Silverado Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains, according to Detective Sgt. John Byrne of Lake County, Illinois.
Kent and Michelle's mother, Donna J. Prentice, 57, have been charged with murdering the child.
Byrne said Kent did not admit to killing Michelle but admitted burying the girl.
"He was relieved ... It seemed like it was bothering him for a very long time," Byrne said.
Brother: Sister asked him to hide her
Days after Michelle was last seen, her family suddenly moved to Illinois from their home south of Los Angeles. Both Kent and Prentice, who were living together at the time, have said the girl was left with a relative in California.
But prosecutors spent a year looking into the case after a private investigator hired by the girl's aunt told them he could find no public record of her after July 4, 1969.
Orange County officials have said they were searching for Michelle's body, but declined to say where.
Michelle's brother, 41-year-old Richard Pulsifer Jr., said he last saw his sister when he was 6 and she asked him to hide her. He hid Michelle under the bed covers, but their mother came and got her.
When the family moved to Illinois, officials said Pulsifer was told there was not enough room in the car for Michelle.
"No missing person report was filed and no one talked about Michelle again," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said.
Prentice was arrested Friday in Wisconsin. She refused to waive extradition to California and will remain in custody pending a September 22 hearing.
Her attorney, Anthony Delyea, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
Kent, of Lakemoor, Illinois, was arrested when he showed up in court on Friday to answer a charge of driving with a suspended license. He had 17 previous arrests and was convicted four times of charges that include assault and domestic violence, Byrne said.
He was being held in the Orange County jail on $1 million bail and had not yet been assigned an attorney.
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