Katherine "Baby Kate" Phillips was only four-months-old when she disappeared more than two years ago from Ludington, Mich. On Oct. 4, the infant’s biological father, Sean Phillips, was charged with her murder.
Sean Phillips, the 23-year-old western Mich. father of baby Kate, had been previously convicted of unlawful imprisonment in connection with his daughter’s disappearance, according to MSN.
Mich. State Attorney General Bill Schuette filed an open murder charge against the father, and also announced at a Friday press conference that "new evidence has been discovered which supports a murder charge in this case."
Phillips had already been sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison last year, after being tried for stealing the baby away her mother. Sean Phillips feared that a court ordered paternity test would prove that he was baby Kate’s biological father.
The mom, Ariel Courtland, testified that the last time she saw her daughter was in the back seat of Phillips’ car.
… police found Phillips about three hours after Courtland reported her daughter's disappearance. Officers found the baby's car seat and diaper bag in the trunk and found her balled-up, inside-out clothing in his pocket …
Investigators have said that seeds and other material on Phillips' shoes could be crucial to locating a body.
The open murder charge levied against Sean Phillips paves the way for a jury to “consider both first- and second-degree murder.”
For more on the search for missing baby Kate, see the video accompanying this article.
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