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      JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - The numbers look increasingly bleak for
families hoping for the best after a monster tornado that
devastated the town of Joplin, with city officials saying death
toll is at least 139. State officials say 100 people are still
missing.


      Thousands more people far beyond Joplin had been waiting for
good news about a teen believed to have been ejected or sucked from
his vehicle on the way home from graduation. Several
social-networking efforts specifically focused on finding
information about Will Norton.


      But his family says he, too, is among the dead - found in a pond
near where his truck was located.


      "At least we know that he wasn't out there suffering," his
aunt Tracey Presslor said, holding a framed portrait of her
18-year-old nephew at a news conference. "Knowing that he was gone
right away was really a blessing for us."


      Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr said Saturday during a news
conference that the death toll rose by three to at least 142, but
later revised that figure down to 139 without elaboration.


      Mike O'Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of
Public Safety, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he could
not confirm the city's updated death toll number. He said the state
of Missouri currently places the death toll at 126, saying they
have no reason to raise that number.


      State officials say there are 142 sets of human remains at the
morgue handling those killed by the storm and some could be from
the same victim.


      If the death toll does stand at 139, it would place this year's
tornado death toll at 520 and make 2011 the deadliest year for
tornadoes since 1950. Until now, the highest recorded death toll by
the National Weather Service in a single year was 519 in 1953.
There were deadlier storms before 1950, but those counts were based
on estimates and not on precise figures.


      On Saturday night, the Department of Public Safety made public a
list of 73 people who had been confirmed dead and whose next of kin
had been notified.


      The tornado - an EF-5 packing 200 mph winds -also injured more
than 900 people. Tallying and identifying the dead and the missing
has proven a complex, delicate and sometimes confusing exercise for
both authorities and loved ones.


      Missouri officials said Saturday that the number of people
unaccounted for stands at 100. The Missouri Department of Public
Safety said that within that number, nine people have been reported
dead by their families, but state officials are working to confirm
those.


      Newton County coroner Mark Bridges said most, if not all, of the
people brought to the temporary morgue could be identified this
weekend. He described officials there as "making real good
progress."


      After a mistake immediately after the storm - four people
thought they had identified one person's body, only to be wrong -
authorities are relying instead on dental records, photos and
unique tattoos or piercings, Bridges said. They've also used DNA
tests in a handful of cases, he said.


      "We learned the hard way at the start," he said. "It's bad
for the families."


      Asked about calls to open the morgue to all families of the
missing, Bridges said doing so would be impractical. He described
the site as a number of dark, refrigerated trailers holding body
bags.


      "There's no place to let them into," he said.


      There have been 1,333 preliminary tornado reports in the U.S.
through May 27, officials said, while the average number of
confirmed tornadoes in a single year during the past decade has
been 1,274.


      Presslor said Saturday that the family received confirmation of
his death late Friday night. She said her nephew's body was not
found sooner because there was so much debris in the pond.


      Family members had previously told The Associated Press that
Norton and his father were still on the road when the storm hit.
Mark Norton urged his son to pull over, but the teen's Hummer H3
flipped several times, throwing the young man from the vehicle,
likely through the sunroof.


      Mark Norton remains in the hospital and is "having a really
tough time" after being told his son's body was found, Presslor
said.


      About a dozen of Norton's classmates stood in the back of the
room as she spoke. His funeral arrangements are pending.


      Presslor thanked the thousands of people who posted good wishes
for Norton on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, and
thanked all those who helped look for him. She urged those
volunteers to keep looking for other people still missing.

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The numbers look increasingly bleak for
families hoping for the best after a monster tornado that
devastated the town of Joplin, with city officials saying death
toll is at least 139. State officials say 100 people are still
missing.

Death toll from Joplin tornado is at least 139

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