Officers in Jacksonville who worked the case of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle are being reprimanded for the way they handled the case.
Authorities said Donald Smith, a registered sex offender, abducted and killed the little girl earlier this summer.
Three officers and a sergeant received a written reprimand Thursday.
Another officer and a lieutenant were both suspended for three days for their actions the night Perrywinkle disappeared.
"I'm not faulting the work that they did at the scene, I'm faulting some of the things they should have done that they didn't do," Undersheriff Dwain Senterfitt said.
Senterfitt said many things were done wrong from the beginning of the investigation.
He said the call should have been dispatched as an abduction, but was instead put out as a missing person.
Investigators found Perrywinkle's body about 10 hours after that call went out.
Authorities said Donald Smith, a registered sex offender, abducted and killed the little girl earlier this summer.
Three officers and a sergeant received a written reprimand Thursday.
Another officer and a lieutenant were both suspended for three days for their actions the night Perrywinkle disappeared.
"I'm not faulting the work that they did at the scene, I'm faulting some of the things they should have done that they didn't do," Undersheriff Dwain Senterfitt said.
Senterfitt said many things were done wrong from the beginning of the investigation.
He said the call should have been dispatched as an abduction, but was instead put out as a missing person.
Investigators found Perrywinkle's body about 10 hours after that call went out.
WFTV
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