Baby Lisa Irwin Missing: First Birthday Approaches, Still No Clues to Whereabouts
Volunteers continue to restlessly search for missing baby Lisa Irwin as her first birthday approaches on Nov. 11, but many question the police’s commitment to the case.
On Thursday night, KMBC reported police halted the search for Lisa.
“Kansas City police said they are not actively searching for Baby Lisa. Police also said the parents are still not cooperating in the investigation,” announced KMBC on its live blog Thursday.
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Stacey Grave, a police representative, contested KMBC’s statement, telling Fox News Friday: “We did not call off the search by any means.”
On Saturday, a crowd of volunteers, including Lisa’s grandparents, again scoured the wooded area close to the child’s Kansas City home for clues.
Missing baby Lisa Irwin’s case hit its one-month anniversary Friday and many questioned if the case is cold.
The family of Lisa expressed heightened anguish as the child’s first birthday approaches on Nov. 11.
“That’s gonna be the oh-my-God moment,” said Lisa’s Grandfather David Netz. Jr. to the Kansas City Star.
“I can’t even imagine what that day will be like. What will we do? How will we get through that?” he added.
The 10-month-old Lisa was reported missing from her Kansas City home in the early morning hours of Oct. 4.
Lisa's father, Jeremy Irwin, was doing electrical work for a local Starbucks late that night. When he returned from work roughly around 4 a.m., he reported several lights on, the front door unlocked, three missing cell phones and a tampered screen window.
Upon checking his daughter’s crib, Irwin realized Lisa was missing.
Drama and confusion surrounds Lisa’s disappearance as the case enters its one-month anniversary Friday.
The media, including CNN’s Nancy Grace, questioned whether the mystery is heading into “cold case territory,” when lack of new information causes it to slowly fade out of public interest and eventually be forgotten. Various factors cause the public to lose interest in cold cases.
Cyndy Short, the local lawyer for Lisa’s parents, bowed out of the case Oct. 28, after butting heads with New York City based lawyer Joe Tacopina, who is also involved in the case.
“Our goals and our approaches are so different that one of us had to go,” said Tacopina in a statement.
Critics argued that such a fall out could hinder the case’s progress. Mother of missing Lisa, Deborah Bradley, claimed innocence and fears she will be pinned as a suspect.
Public suspicion circulated when Bradley switched the time she last saw her infant the night she disappeared, although officials contend the couple has complied with authorities’ requests.
Bradley originally claimed she put her child down at 10:30 p.m., but she changed the time to 6:40 p.m. and provided no explanation for the switch.
More concern arose when Bradley told NBC news that she had been drinking heavily on the evening of her child’s disappearance, saying that she had “enough to be drunk.”
Bradley fears being arrested for her baby’s disappearance. She said if police arrest her "people are going to stop looking” for Lisa.
Although Lisa’s case enters its one-month mark with no significant leads, witnesses have revealed suspicious developments to investigators.
Neighbor to the Irwin family, Mary Hurt, told Nancy Grace that on the night of Lisa’s disappearance, she saw the neighborhood repairperson, known as “Jersey,” walking near the Irwin home.
Hurt described Jersey as “shady,” and on Nov. 1, investigators confiscated the cellphone of Jersey’s ex-girlfriend, Megan Wright.
According to Wright, Deborah Bradley’s mobile called her phone the night of Lisa’s disappearance. Jersey is not confirmed as an official suspect, and remains in prison on an unrelated burglary charge.
Other witnesses claimed to have seen a man walking down the highway carrying a diaper-clad baby the night of Lisa's disappearance. A gas station surveillance camera also shows a man emerging from a wooded area close to the Irwin home on the night of the disappearance, but it is unclear if he is toting a child in his arms.
Detectives have announced no significant leads in the case as it reached its one-month mark Friday.
