Ivory Coast skeleton not journalist's

YAOKRO, Ivory Coast, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A skeleton found in Ivory Coast last week was not journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer, who disappeared in the city of Abidjan in 2004, officials said.

"If the DNA had been Guy-Andre's that would have shown that he was dead," Kieffer's wife, Osange Silou-Kieffer, said Thursday. "But there is still some hope this evening, even if there is only a one percent chance, that he's still alive."

The skeleton was found near the village of Yaokro on Jan. 6, Radio France Internationale reported.

Doubts about whether the skeleton was Kieffer's arose when local residents told journalists that it belonged to a black man, RFI reported.

Kieffer, a French Canadian freelance journalist, was reporting on embezzlement in the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast. He was due to meet with the brother of Simone Gbagbo, wife of former president Laurent Gbagbo, when he disappeared.

French examining magistrate Patrick Ramael said his investigation into Kieffer's disappearance is focused on people close to Simone Gbagbo.