Kansas City, Mo ? The case of a little girl whose beheaded body was found here almost two years ago is about to get a new look as the FBI and Defense Department offer their help in trying to identify her and find her killer.

Both agencies announced Wednesday that they will join in the investigation of the death of a child who came to be known as “Precious Doe.” Her body was found in a wooded area of Kansas City on April 28, 2001, with the head found nearby a few days later.

In their efforts to identify the victim authorities have sought to match her DNA with that of 10 missing girls from around the country, most recently one from Virginia. Kansas City detectives have investigated more than 600 leads and still have 284 tips to follow up on.

A computerized likeness and three-dimensional bust of the child have been created. Her body will be exhumed to provide additional information for review by teams from both the FBI and Defense Department.

The FBI plans to send five or six experts in child abductions and murders.

“This case is so important to Kansas City, we are lending these resources to police,” FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said. “They are going to take a new look at the case.”

Lanza said it was unusual for the FBI experts to come to a city because they usually worked from their headquarters.

The Defense Department will provide a forensic pathologist and perhaps a forensic anthropologist and other investigators from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

Investigators from the institute have identified every service member killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the victims of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, and those killed in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the crash of another hijacked plane in Pennsylvania that same day.

“We have some of the world’s leading experts who can look at these cases,” institute spokesman Christopher Kelly said.

Kelly said the experts could help police estimate the victim’s size, stature and gender, and investigate injury patterns on bones.

Police think Precious Doe was between 3 and 6 years old, weighed 35 to 40 pounds and stood 43 to 45 inches tall. The girl had a crescent-shaped birthmark on her left shoulder and a chipped front tooth.

It is uncertain when the experts will arrive, but officials are hoping it will be next month. Some Armed Forces Institute experts are still busy identifying war casualties.

Police hope the scientific experts can help detectives prioritize the remaining leads and future ones, said Homicide Capt. Randy Hopkins.

“That’s not to say something’s been missed by our detectives or done wrong, we just want to throw more resources at it,” Hopkins said. “We’re relentless about this case. We’re not going to give up.”