Teenage Target employee missing for nearly 4 months found dead in Des Moines River

• Target employee Abdullahi "Abdi" Sharif was found dead in the Des Moines River on Saturday.
• The 18-year-old Target employee had been missing since January 17. He was last seen leaving the Merle Hay Target in Des Moines, Iowa.
• Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a video press conference on Monday that the case into Sharif's death is not closed.
• Parizek said that preliminary autopsy findings have resulted in "no indication of traumatic injury that occurred prior to his death."
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The body of missing Des Moines teenager Abdullahi "Abdi" Sharif has been found over 100 days after he vanished upon leaving the Target where he worked, the Des Moines Police Department announced in a press conference on Monday.

In a video conference posted on Facebook, Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said that a kayaker had noticed the body in the Des Moines River around on the afternoon on May 2. The Des Moines Register reported the body was discovered near the city's Prospect Park.

"That was pretty close to the spot where Abdi's phone had last pinged," Parizek said.

According to Parizek, the Polk County Medical Examiner's Office is still working to identify his cause and manner of death. Parizek said that there is no initial indication of traumatic injuries incurred prior to his death.

Parizek said the medical examiner is "trying to determine whether or not it was an intentional act on his part or an accident." He told Business Insider that toxicology testing could take up to two weeks.

"There are things that we may never have the answers to, but the case is still open and we're going to keep working on that and see if we can get some answers for the family," he said in the May 4 press conference.

In its May 4 Facebook post, the Des Moines Police Department asked its followers to "please join us in expressing condolences with Abdi's friends and family. Thank you to all who supported the family, donated their time during search parties and fundraisers, and assisted DMPD with the investigation."

The Roosevelt High School senior vanished on January 17, a snow day. He had gone to visit the Target at Merle Hay Mall, where both he and his older sister Ifrah Mohamed worked, that afternoon. Neither Sharif nor Mohamed were on shift at the Target on the night of his disappearance.

The retailer provided police with footage of Sharif in the store. At the May 4 conference, Parizek said police were able to examine two shots of the teen voluntarily leaving the store, although he said the investigation overall was plagued by an "absence of video evidence."

"We realized pretty quick that this was out of his character," Parizek said. "He wasn't the type of kid to be irresponsible and just leave his mom sitting there without letting her know what was going on."

According to Mohamed and Abdullahi's family friend and former teacher Emily Levine, Sharif posted a Snapchat while at the Target on January 17, referring to "bad, bad news." The meaning of message, and whether it had anything to do with his disappearance, remains unclear. Sharif had asked his mother to come back to pick him up at 9:30 p.m., but by the time she arrived, he was already gone.

Google Maps indicates that Prospect Park is around an 80-minute walk from Merle Hay Mall. Parizek said that the wooded area around where the body was discovered has been searched a number of times — even as recently as March 8 — but that the river was frequently iced over during the wintertime. As the weather has warmed up, that stretch of the Des Moines River has seen increased activity.

"This is one of those situations where Mother Nature had the advantage," the police spokesman said. "Until the water level was right and circumstances were just such, nobody was going to see the body from the banks or on the water."

Parizek said that the discovery of Sharif's body has been a blow for everyone working on his case.

"We were hoping that the longer this went on, the chances were greater that we would find him alive somewhere and there would be some sort of explanation," he said.

Levine posted about the news on Facebook.

"We are distraught and doing everything we can to get him the peace he deserves," family friend Emily Levine said in a Facebook post.

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