October 22, 2011
CNN
A cadaver dog searching the home where a missing 11-month-old Missouri girl was reportedly last seen indicated a positive "hit" for the scent of a body, according to documents released Friday.
The information was included in an affidavit, dated Tuesday, police filed to request a search warrant of Lisa Irwin's Kansas City home.
Baby Lisa was reported missing at 4 a.m. October 4, after Lisa's father, Jeremy Irwin, came home from work to find the door unlocked, the lights on and a window that had been tampered with.
Lisa's mother, Deborah Bradley, said she last saw Lisa at 6:40 p.m. the night before.
"The cadaver dog indicated a positive 'hit' for the scent of a deceased human in the area of the floor of Bradley's bedroom near the bed," the affidavit read.
It also said that interviews with people involved in the case "revealed conflicting information" and that Bradley told police she did not initially look for her baby behind the house because she "was afraid of what she might find."
A judge approved the search warrant, which allowed investigators to comb the house and barred the family from returning home. The warrant was executed on Wednesday.
Police took clothing, blankets, a toy, rolls of tape and a tape dispenser from the home, documents showed.
The attorney for Lisa's parents said the release of the affidavit Friday was "unfortunate," as it could derail the search for the missing girl.
Joe Tacopina described his clients as "very shaken up and they refuse to believe anything except that she is out there and alive." He said Lisa's parents are "terrified, not for themselves, but for the welfare of their daughter."
The attorney also stressed cadaver dogs are just meant to be an investigative tool, and cannot be considered a basis for legal action against his clients.
The family's private investigator, Bill Stanton, called the information contained in the affidavit "interesting."
"I'm eager to get the facts (and) I hope it leads to finding baby Lisa," he said.
Earlier in the week, Bradley said in an NBC interview that she was drunk the night the infant disappeared and that she had last seen the baby about four hours earlier than initially reported.
Bradley told NBC she is afraid she will be arrested. Police have accused her of killing Lisa, she said, and told her that she failed a lie detector test.
"I was the last one with her," a tearful Bradley said. "And from judging on how the questioning went, that's kind of a fear that I have. And the main fear with that is, if they arrest me, people are going to stop looking for her. And then I'll never see her again, and I'll never know what happened."
Asked how much she had been drinking that night, Bradley said, "enough to be drunk."
But she rejected the notion that she could have harmed her daughter while under the influence of alcohol.
"No, no, no," she told NBC. "And if I thought there was a chance, I'd say it. No. No. I don't think alcohol changes a person enough to do something like that."
Asked whether he had questions about Bradley, Jeremy Irwin told NBC, "No. There's no question to be had there. I know who she is. I know the kind of mother she is."
Irwin said it's possible someone could have entered the house without Bradley hearing, as the couple's bedroom is on the opposite corner of the house from Lisa's room and Bradley sleeps with a fan at high speed.
Lisa is described as being 30 inches tall with blue eyes and blonde hair, according to police. She weighs between 26 and 30 pounds and was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it.
The missing girl has two bottom teeth and a "beauty mark" on her right outer thigh, police said. At the time of her disappearance, she had a cold with a cough.
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