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GILMORE -- The body of a 7-year-old girl missing since last weekend was found Thursday evening, a television station reported.

KTHV in Little Rock reported that authorities told the family of Patricia Miles of Gilmore that her body was found off Arkansas 77 not far from where her bicycle was recovered in Mississippi County four days ago.

A pastor for the family told a crowd gathered at the search site to pray for the family.

Patricia was last seen at 8:15 a.m. Sunday, riding her pink bicycle to the local grocery store. A family friend was arrested on a kidnapping charge and was being held on $1 million bond in the Crittenden County jail in Marion.

Jo Ann Buchanan, who occasionally babysat the girl, has refused to cooperate with authorities. Investigators have not offered a motive for the kidnapping and Buchanan's family relatives have insisted on her innocence.

Witnesses have said they saw the girl get into a van with Buchanan Sunday morning and later saw Buchanan take the girl's bicycle from the van in a rural area north of Gilmore.

Since the girl disappeared Sunday morning, more than 100 police and volunteers combed farmland, fields and ditches, using search dogs and a helicopter. The search extended across three counties in Northeast Arkansas and, at one point, investigators expressed confidence that Patricia would be found alive.

Late Thursday evening, the Arkansas State Police called off the search alert for Patricia, and an ambulance and coroner were called to the scene.

Neither the state police nor the Crittenden County Sheriff's Office would provide further details Thursday night. The girl's family members were at the scene, then drove off after talking to authorities.

Earlier, police said they decided not to expand their search beyond the immediate area because they were confident the child was nearby.

Yellow ribbons adorned trees, street signs and utility poles in this Crittenden County town as police and volunteers searched farm fields to the north in Mississippi County.

The girl's bike was found in a cornfield early Monday, about 100 yards from her shoes, which were in a field of beans.

A tip led search teams to the fields 5 miles north of Gilmore and state police investigator Dale Arnold said there was nothing more for searchers to do than to continue their work among the crops.

Constable Dennis Tucker of Mississippi County brought three cases of bottled water to refresh police and volunteers. Tucker and two volunteers offered to stay and help, but Arnold said their assistance wasn't needed.

For a time, crews searched a portion of northern Crittenden County around Gilmore and a nearby section of Poinsett County before turning full attention to an area near Denwood in southern Mississippi County.

While Buchanan sat silent this week in the county jail at Marion, police and search teams combed the region for the girl. Buchanan's children, a boy, 16, and a girl, 11, stayed with separate relatives.

Gilmore resident Clarence Loving, who has watched all the activity from his home across the street from the community center-police station that serves the town of 292, said earlier Thursday that residents hope the ordeal is over soon.

"It's tragic. It's an awful thing," Loving said. "Everyone is still hoping but some are starting to give up hope. At least if they find her body it will help her mother deal with it."

A yellow ribbon hangs from the community center door, with a small purple teddy bear attached to the ribbon by a sparkling blue ponytail holder.