KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) -- Kansas City Police Spokesman Steve Young confirmed Monday that there was no police search for missing Baby Lisa Irwin Sunday as reported.
Reports Monday indicated two searches took place over the weekend: A search by a group of volunteers and a separate search by police.
When asked to confirm that a police search took place over the weekend, as reported Monday, Kansas City Police Captain Steve Young said, "There was an all volunteer search this weekend; not affiliated with the pd."
Shelly, one of the volunteer search leaders, said she is not aware there was any police-initiated search over the weekend. Their group never alluded to the fact that police were involved in their search this weekend so it is unclear where the information came from.
Capt. Young said they continue to follow all worthwhile leads as they come in on the case. "Some are better than others and as you know, none have produced anything."
It's a sad reality that over three months have passed and no one has been willing to come forward and tell police what happened to Baby Lisa.
When a child goes missing, whether it be due to an accidental death followed by a cover-up, or a kidnapping, historically more than one person knows what happened.
People who commit crimes are usually not able to keep it to themselves. In this case, there could be multiple persons who know what happened to Lisa. Withholding information from police not only implicates them if they are found out, but it also is unfair to everyone seeking answers and grieving the loss of this beautiful, precious little blaby girl.
Statistically, the chance that Baby Lisa was abducted from her crib by a stranger is very slim. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children there were only 13 cases of infants reported missing from their cribs over a 28 year period. All but one were found.
Gil Abeyta, whose son Christopher was abducted from his crib 25 years ago, agrees with those statistics. He's the father of that one baby who was never found. He drove from Colorado to help in the search for Baby Lisa. He said in all the years that he's searched not only for his son but many other missing children, to his knowledge infant abductions that are not quickly resolved are very rare. Infants removed from their cribs, even more rare.
So what happened to Baby Lisa? Those who know have a moral obligation to tell someone.
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Baby Lisa Irwin was reported missing Oct. 4, 2011, at around 4 a.m. Her parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, say she was abducted from her crib. Their repeated inconsistent stories and refusal to cooperate with police have placed them under a cloud of suspicion by police and the public.
An anonymous donor has offered a $100,000 reward for the safe return of Baby Lisa or for information that leads to a conviction of her abductor.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the TIP Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS.
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