The body of a 13-year-old North Carolina girl who vanished in 2011 was found this week — two years after her adoptive parents were convicted of tax fraud related to the child’s disappearance. The skeletal remains found Tuesday in South Carolina were positively identified as Erica Parsons by the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office, officials said Thursday. It was adoptive father Sandy Parsons, who was also her uncle, who told investigators where to find Erica, the Charlotte Observer reported. “It’s been a long hard five years not knowing where she was,” aunt Teresa Goodman told WSOC.

Erica lived with Sandy and Casey Parsons in Rowan County from 2000 until her disappearance. She wasn’t reported missing until 2013. The couple claimed Erica went to live in Asheville with a woman they believed to be her biological grandmother, who never turned up. They repeatedly insisted this was the case, and even went on national TV with “Dr. Phil” McGraw in 2013. The episode was titled “Missing or Murdered: Where is 15-Year-Old Erica?”(nydailynews.com)…[+]