ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

MICHELLE LOCKE

PETALUMA, Calif. (AP)—A lone candle that burned in a window at Polly Klaas’ home was gone Sunday and the shades were drawn. Two months after her abduction at knifepoint from a slumber party, her body was found in a roadside thicket.

Sometime during the night, people started lighting candles in front of the headquarters for the search for the missing 12-year-old. By morning more than three dozen flickered in a chill wind, surrounded by flowers and plants in front of Polly’s picture.

‘‘There are a lot of broken hearts here,’‘ said Gary Judd, one of the people who helped organize the widespread volunteer search effort for Polly.

A Polly Klaas Foundation had helped spread word of the girl’s disappearance nationwide. Actress Winona Ryder, a native of Petaluma, offered a $200,000 reward.

On Sunday, a team of FBI agents combed the area 30 miles north of town where Polly’s body was found late Saturday. They looked for clues to how she was killed, who did it, and whether she was still alive when a suspect was briefly confronted by deputies about an hour after her abduction.

A palm print found in Polly’s room that matched prime suspect Richard Allen Davis apparently persuaded him to help authorities locate the body, FBI agent Rick Smith said. He would not provide any other details.

‘‘That was a very significant clue that led us to investigate further,’‘ he said at the search site Sunday.

Davis, 39, was held without bail in the Sonona County Jail after being booked Sunday for investigation of kidnapping and murder. Authorities said they will pursue formal charges early this week.

Davis, a convicted kidnapper, was arrested Tuesday for violating parole. He was serving a 30-day sentence for drunken driving before being booked Sunday.

Polly’s Oct. 1 abduction from her own bedroom, where she was having a slumber party with two friends, brought out a strong community reaction in and around Petaluma, a quiet farming community about 45 miles north of San Francisco.

‘‘We’re all asking the questions. Why did it happen? Why Polly?’‘ said Gary French, head of the Polly Klaas Foundation, the group that turned the search for Polly into a sophisticated nationwide hunt.

‘‘Polly has become more than a neighbor in Petaluma. She has become America’s child,’‘ her father, Marc Klaas, said in a statement.

On Sunday, townspeople walked with sober expressions and churchgoers hugged and cried on street corners.

Dalton Sallinger rolled a cigarette with unsteady hands.

‘‘We did everything that was possible to humanly do to find our little Polly,’‘ he said, his eyes bleary. ‘‘I want to know why they paroled this person … we have a right to know.’‘

Police have released little information. This is what is known:

Polly was kidnapped at knifepoint by a man who entered her bedroom about 10:40 p.m., asked which of the three girls lived there and where valuables were kept. He bound and gagged the girls and told them he would slit their throats if they screamed.

Petaluma police were called at about 11 p.m. and about a half hour later they called the Sonoma County Sheriff’s office. At 12:14 a.m., Petaluma police put out a teletype with descriptions.

At 11:42 p.m., a woman had called the sheriff’s office to report a trespasser just east of Santa Rosa, about 20 miles north of Petaluma. Deputies responded and confronted Davis, whose car was stuck in a ditch.

Suspicious deputies searched his car and checked to see if he was wanted. Finding nothing, they let him go minutes later.

If the deputies had been listening to a different radio channel, they would have heard about the kidnapping.

Davis was stopped for drunken driving in Mendocino County on Oct. 19, but released. On Nov. 15, he missed a reporting date with his parole officer in San Mateo County.

On Nov. 28, the Santa Rosa woman called deputies to report finding clothing and other items on her property.

Davis’ criminal record was checked, revealing an 11-page rap sheet.

He was arrested at a house just north of Ukiah, about 70 miles north of Petaluma.