Child found in Illinois garage may have been killed in 2013

By Associated Press

Published: June 7, 2017, 9:30am

Trees grow in front of the entrance of a garage Tuesday where the remains of a 7-year-old child was found in Centreville, Ill. A Las Vegas woman told investigators Tuesday that her dead child had been in a southern Illinois home for two years, and authorities later found human remains in the vacant house, according to authorities. (Christine Byers/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

ST. LOUIS — Police believe the remains of a child found in the garage of a vacant Illinois home had been there four years.

They are investigating the death as a homicide.

Centreville, Illinois, officers found the body Tuesday after a woman at a shelter in Las Vegas told police that her husband had killed their 6-year-old daughter before they moved. She said he placed the body in a garage in Centreville. She also said her husband, 34-year-old Jason Quate, forced her into sex trafficking over the past two years.

Officers found the body wrapped in blankets. Police in Illinois believe the child was killed in nearby Belleville in 2013.

Quate is jailed on suspicion of sex trafficking in Las Vegas. A prosecutor says he expects to file formal charges soon.

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