Police believe pickup truck may lead to who killed S. Ind. teen

Indiana State Police pull a large piece of evidence from the home where deputies found a teenage girl dead.

15-year-old Alexis Oesterle went missing Sunday night in Rockport, Indiana near the Ohio River.  That’s the same place authorities found her body.

State Police towed a pick-up truck from the driveway of the teenager's house late Tuesday, but they won't say who owns it. Investigators also won't say if the girl's family had anything to do with her death that has police looking for a killer.

Deputies from Spencer County, Indiana showed up to 78 East Grissom Monday evening after a call for help finding a missing girl. Detectives interviewed the family, searched the home, but when they searched outside, behind this shed, they found 15-year-old Alexis Oesterle dead.

Sgt. Chad Dick with Indiana State Police told WHAS11, "until today when the autopsy was performed we were calling it a death investigation. And then when the autopsy was performed information investigators received from that autopsy is when they decided to make it into a criminal investigation instead of just a death investigation."

Though authorities are keeping details of how she died kept under wraps for now while they talk to people close to the girl.

Neighbors told WHAS11 they didn't see much of Alexis, but they believe she had been having some trouble at school. They also think she may have even been expelled from South Spencer High School not long before what happened here.

Police also question why it took Alexis's family nearly 24 hours to call police after she disappeared Sunday Night.

WHAS11’s Chase Cain asked investigators, “does that raise concern for you that they waited almost a full 24 hours?”

Sgt. Dick responded, "from the outside it does. But I don't know the inner workings of the family, what the normal protocol is for them, anything like that. So that's what the investigators are obviously looking at and trying to get the answers to those questions."

State Police hope to gather more evidence from an autopsy underway in Louisville. Through their interviews so far they have found several persons of interest, but they won't say if Alexis's family is among them.