Body of missing 8-year-old found in Santa Cruz, Calif.

The body of an 8-year-old girl was discovered Monday in a town on the California coast, a day after she disappeared.

Madyson “Maddy” Middleton’s body was found in a building at the Tannery Arts Center in Santa Cruz, Calif., KRON-TV reported. The child vanished around 5:05 p.m. Sunday while riding her scooter outside the center, the San Francisco Chroniclereported.  Middleton was visiting her mother, who lives in the center’s affordable housing offered to artists.

"Our hearts our broken and our deepest sympathy to to the family of Madyson Middleton," the California Highway Patrol's Santa Cruz office tweeted. "We are grieving with the entire Santa Cruz community."

On Monday, one person was taken into custody in relation to the case, KRON-TV reported. The person was not identified.

According to the Chronicle, both of Middleton’s parents met with police Monday. Middleton’s father, Michael, spent much of the day searching the streets with friends.

Following her disappearance, authorities searched for the child in woodland and park areas nearby. Search dogs tracked her scent to a beach 2 miles away, the Chronicle reported. Officials were looking for her on foot, as well as by aircraft and watercraft, a police spokeswoman said.

Earlier Monday, officials said they were not calling the case a kidnapping. An Amber alert was not issued for the child because the case did not meet the criteria. Instead, an endangered missing person alert was issued.

Contributing: Associated Press

Honore: America's in denial about gun culture

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Russel Honore, Louisiana's most well-known 21st century military hero, said America is mired in a state of denial about its gun culture and that's harming the country.

"As a country we're in a state of denial because we've confused the right to bear arms with the right to carry arms all the time anywhere or anyplace you want," Honore told Gannett Louisiana on Monday. "We have to have a different kind of conversation in America and be prepared to speak about the politically unspeakable."

Honore said the string of recent mass gun murders — culminating with the tragic movie theater shooting in Lafayette Thursday in which two victims died — should provide a wake up call.

"It breaks my heart to see that happen in my home state or anywhere in America," he said. "We've got a problem in this country, and at some point the politicians have to get down into the community and find some answers to this problem."

Honore had considered running for governor this fall but decided against making the race earlier this summer.

The retired army general, best known for his role leading the Hurricane Katrina recovery in New Orleans, said during his time in the military soldiers "were required to clear their weapons and turn them in as soon as they came in from the field."

"The best place for weapons when you're not in the field is to be locked up in the garrison," Honore' said. "Our biggest problem before Desert Storm was (soldiers) accidentally firing their weapons, and they're trained.

"I've been around guns all my life, but when I was growing up they were locked in the cabinet unless you needed them for hunting."

Honore also said he disagrees with those advocating for military men and women at recruitment offices to be armed. Some armed civilians have taken it upon themselves to stand guard at recruitment locations since the mass shooting at a Tennessee office this summer.

One such civilian accidentally fired a round at an Ohio recruitment office last week. Nobody was injured.

"I don't think it's a good idea to arm military at the recruitment offices or to have civilians there with guns," Honore said. "That's the job of law enforcement. On our bases, yes, we guard our gates and our bases, but not at the recruitment offices."

Coast Guard racing clock to find missing Florida teens

Coast Guard search and rescue teams and a Navy destroyer were racing the clock Monday to bring home two boys missing in the vast Atlantic since they left South Florida in a 19-foot boat three days ago as stormy weather approached.

Petty Officer Mark Barney told USA TODAY the primary search area was moved to an area north of where the capsized boat was found Sunday, 67 miles off Daytona Beach. The search area now continues to north of Jacksonville, which is 90 miles north of Daytona and 250 miles north of the boys' home in the Jupiter area.

"The Gulf Stream is a pretty powerful current," Barney said. "But we have quite a few people searching, and we hope we can pull this off."

Authorities said Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, both 14, were last seen about 1:30 p.m. ET Friday in the Jupiter area buying 28 gallons of fuel from the Jib Yacht Club and Marina. They were reported missing less than four hours later, after thunderstorms producing high winds, big waves and heavy rains had struck.

A commercial fisherman heading for safety said the teens were the only ones going out to sea.

“I said to myself, ‘Those kids are crazy,’” Jim Dulin toldThe Palm Beach Post. “There’s no way they couldn’t see that storm. The storm was really black, the temperature dropped and you could tell it was going to be a really mean one.”

The Coast Guard found the boat late Sunday morning off Ponce Inlet, more than 180 miles north of where the teens cast off. A rescue swimmer lowered from an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter confirmed the registration number.

The boat was not damaged and one life jacket was found on board, authorities said. The Coast Guard anchored the boat where it was found for retrieval later. The agency released a video showing the boat bobbing upside  down in the water; a diver reported some details such as the cover missing from the motor.

"That's not what you want to hear -- that the boat capsized," Austin's  mother, Carly Black, told WPBF-TV. "You want to hear that your boys are on the boat."

"We're experiencing the same roller coaster of emotions," said Pamela Cohen, Perry's mother, seated next to Black. "Not even on an hourly basis. I think it can be minute by minute."

Barney would not speculate on how long the boys could survive if they were in the water. They may have improvised a flotation device from life jackets, the missing engine cover and a white plastic cooler, according to a Coast Guard flier.

But Barney dismissed reports that they boys had set out for the Bahamas, saying they were sufficiently sea-wise to know they didn't have the supplies required for such a journey. Although the two boys frequently fish together in the Jupiter Inlet area, they were not prepared for an extended ocean outing, Barney said.

"We can only go with what we know as fact," he said. "We really can't speculate at this point as to what happened out there."

Marina manager Joey Krizka told the Palm Beach paper that the boys' had only $109 for the $122 of fuel they pumped. Krizka said they pulled out their phones to call their mothers for more money, but he told them to pay up next time.

“Now I kind of wish I would have let them call their mom,” Krizka said. “If I’m the last one to see them, maybe they would have not been where they were at.”

He, too, said he doubted they intended to head to the Bahamas, a trip they had made with their families several times, because they "didn’t have any supplies.”

With four fishing poles and a cooler, Krizka said, they likely were just going fishing as always in the Intracoastal Waterway or offshore.

By midday Monday, the Coast Guard had searched more than 25,000 square nautical miles, Barney said. A Coast Guard HC-130 airplane, the cutter Paul Clark, the cutter Sawfish and the Navy destroyer USS Carney continue to search for the missing teens.

Barney said the Coast Guard appreciated the offers of help from private boaters but said the agency discourages that type of involvement for safety reasons.

The search effort prompted NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, a neighbor of one of the boys, to offer a $100,000 reward. Namath said he hoped the appeal for information could help the search. He told reporters on Sunday that the boys are both skilled boaters.

"We've got to believe in their wherewithal," he said. "We'll keep on looking until we find them. We're all praying. ... The good Lord's gotta help us out."

Chillicothe police look for link between W.Va. shooting, dead Ohio women

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio —  Local investigators are looking into any possible connection between an Oregon man killed by an escort in West Virginia and local missing women and homicide cases.

Chillicothe police Public Information Officer Bud Lytle said they are still checking whether Neal Falls, 45, might have visited Chillicothe or had any connection to the area.

“As it stands right now, we have nothing that ties him to anything here in Chillicothe,” Lytle said.

However, they aren’t ruling him out yet, and a team is planning to go to Charleston, W.Va., in the “near future,” Ross County sheriff’s Chief Deputy T.J. Hollis said.

Falls was shot and killed in Charleston, about two hours from Chillicothe, on July 18 while attempting to choke an escort he’d met through Backpage, a Web-based classifieds advertiser, according to Charleston police.

After finding several axes, a shovel, bleach, handcuffs, knives, a machete and other items in Falls’ vehicle, investigators began pursuing any potential connections with similar cases across the country. Because of Chillicothe’s proximity, investigators believe there could be a connection with the disappearances of Charlotte Trego, 27, or Wanda Lemons, 37, or the deaths of Tiffany Sayre, 26, Tameka Lynch, 30, or Shasta Himelrick, 20.

On Friday, a Ross County grand jury indicted a local man, Jason McCrary, 37, in the May shooting death of 38-year-old Timberly Claytor. A motive for her death remains unknown, and investigators have not found any evidence so far that links him to any of the other cases.

According to the Huffington Post, Charleston police also have connected with Las Vegas police regarding at least four cases there involving missing or murdered prostitutes.

While Falls most recently was known to live in Springfield, Ore., he has had family connections to several states, including Nevada, Iowa, Washington, Kansas, New Mexico, California and Oklahoma.