"We were pretty good friends, that's Kim," said Nicole Souza, the victim's friend.
Nicole Souza remembers Kim Adler as a good person.
"She was a good girl, had a head on her shoulders," Souza said.
She showed Eyewitness News her middle school yearbook, and a photograph of the smiling teen as a 7th grader.
It is one of the few images available of her before she disappeared.
In Keansburg, those who live near 45A Campview Place wonder if a small cottage on the property holds the key to the Kim Adler mystery.
On Tuesday, a cleaning crew working in the house discovered human skeletal remains buried under the home.
The find launched an investigation that includes the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, police and the medical examiner.
Their goal is to determine how long the remains have been there, the cause of death, and most importantly the identity.
Why do residents believe it may be Kim? It's because she used to live there and her father owned the home.
Among those who've been watching investigators tear apart the house for evidence is Joe Maier.
He had been renting the home until about five months ago.
"There were always gnats and everything, always a bad stench. (Never knew why?) We thought it was the plumbing because it was the bathroom," Maier said.
That stench may have been a decomposing body and until police have conclusive evidence that it's not Kim Adler, residents suspect it will be her.
"It's kind of weird to hear she could be buried under the house she grew up in," a resident said.
"If it is her I would like to know why they did that to her. She was friendly and didn't deserve that," Souza said.
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