The desperate search for missing honors student Phylicia Barnescame to a heartbreaking end Thursday, after an autopsy determined that a body pulled from the Susquehanna River was that of the North Carolina teen who vanished from Baltimore in December.

Two law enforcement sources said the autopsy revealed that the body was Barnes; state police later confirmed the finding and said a press conference has been scheduled for 8 p.m.

Earlier Thursday, The Sun reported that Baltimore police had provided Barnes' dental records to the state medical examiner's office for comparison to a body found in the river, one of two found Wednesday in the waterway that splits Harford and Cecil counties about 40 miles northeast of Baltimore.

An apparent tattoo on the body appeared to match a tattoo of a rose that Barnes had on her lower right leg, increasing speculation that the teen's body had been discovered after months of fruitless searching.

[Her disappearance has been a big mystery here - such a shame]