(WXYZ) — Police will begin the massive search for the body of Zion Foster Tuesday following the confession from her cousin who claims to have dumped her body in a landfill back in January.
Over 70 people per day will be sifting through the Pine Acres Landfill in Lenox Township in hopes of finding her body.
Crews could be searching for up two months, but Zion's mother, Cierra Milton, is hoping closure will come sooner.
"We don't know if it'll be the first day, second day, the first few weeks or if it'll ever happen," Milton said.
In total, the search could last 6 to 8 weeks.
The Detroit Fire Department was at the landfill yesterday with a decontamination unit.
Patti Kukula, the executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation says since announcing the search, support has poured in.
Over 70 people a day from multiple jurisdictions will be pitching in to help find Zion.
"We're gonna have a warm week suiting up in all of the gear with the respirators and the complete hazmat outfit and the heavy steel boots, making sure that they're protected from any kind of toxins that may be there as they're doing the search," Kukula said. "Nobody has been frightened by this, they're ready to jump in and go."
Zion's mother says the community's warm embrace is much needed.
"With so much that's wrong with the world, so much that's bad with the world, you get to experience and see the good," Milton said.
The start of the search means the family may soon get closure, but Zion's siblings are struggling to accept reality.
"They're really starting to come to grips with this situation, and so I see the breakdown, I see the emotional turmoil that they're experiencing," Milton says.
Kukula says it's Zion's family that will keep crews going.
"Every day when that first responder shows up, they're going to look into this family's eyes, and they're going to work even harder to locate Zion," Kukula said.
