Posted on 02/27/2005 1:05:02 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
(CBS/AP) Florida investigators have released a picture of a man possibly connected to the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl.
He was photographed with two children at a Circle K convenience store hours after Jessica Marie Lunsford was last seen in her bedroom about a half-mile away.
The man is wearing a white tank top and black sweat pants -- and appears to be in his 20s.
Jessica's family has seen the surveillance tape and doesn't think the girl in the picture looks like her, but authorities want the public's help as they follow up on the possible lead.
The girl in the store picture wore a pink shirt and jeans. Jessica went to bed Wednesday night in a pink shirt and white shorts -- and her family tells authorities that none of her jeans was missing.
Hundreds of police and volunteers have turned out in pouring rain Sunday to search for Lunsford, who was last seen Wednesday night when her grandmother tucked her into bed. The next morning, her father discovered she was gone.
Authorities have few clues. Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has said a door at the home was unlocked and one of Jessie's dolls was gone.
The clothes she had laid out for school were still in place, and none of her shoes were gone.
Police have scoured the wooded neighborhood around her house, but Dawsy said the girl's disappearance is not a confirmed abduction, and he hasn't ruled out anything.
As dawn broke Sunday, rain was falling across the region. Forecasts called for strong thunderstorms to drop as much as 2 inches by nightfall.
"The weather has not been beneficial to my investigation at all," Dawsy said.
The night after Jessie disappearance was reported, fog grounded a helicopter that would have searched the area with infrared radar.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton, a Homosassa native, and his wife Katia put up a $25,000 reward for Jessie's return.
Jessica lives in the house with her father and his parents.
She was last seen by her grandparents, before she went to bed Wednesday night. They said they put her to bed after she returned from a church function.
Her father told authorities he had returned Thursday morning from a girlfriend's home, coming in through the locked back door as he usually does, and was getting ready for work when he realized his daughter's alarm clock was sounding and she wasn't there.
Dawsy said Lunsford's story checked out.
Mark Lunsford said his daughter had had little contact with her mother, who Dawsy said had been in Ohio and was being interviewed by the FBI. Michael Brooks, an FBI spokesman in Cincinnati, would not comment on what the FBI discussed with Angela Bryant but said she had not been arrested or detained.
"I don't know where she is," Bryant, 31, of Morrow, Ohio, told The Associated Press in a tearful telephone interview Friday.
Bryant, who has remarried and has a 5-year-old son, added that she hadn't seen her daughter for four years. "Her dad didn't let me see her," she said.
Can't seem to link to clip of surveillance tape mentioned in story. It's on the site refrenced above, however.
Thanks, Petronski! :)
FWIW I just saw an interview with the Mom on Fox and she said that she doesn't believe that is her on the video as none of her clothes were taken.
That's a pretty clear shot, they ought to be able to find that guy, assuming he is local.
Makes for clearer images. The old tapes would be used over and over and the images were lousy.
Hours? 1 hour or 12 hours? The story should include whether the 4:57 time stamp on the video is AM or PM. It it's a 24 hour joint, it's very possible the time is 4:57AM and not PM.
"The girl in the store picture wore a pink shirt and jeans. Jessica went to bed Wednesday night in a pink shirt and white shorts -- and her family tells authorities that none of her jeans was missing."
That doesn't mean the abductor didn't have a spare pair of jeans for her to wear, subsequent to the abduction, to throw off authorities.
Unless the doors are heavily tinted it appears that the light outside is coming from artificial, as in neon, light. Unless it was very cloudy at 4:57 in the p.m., this would indicate the picture was taken 4:57 a.m. Of course I don't live in that part of the country so don't know about the weather or the tinting of windows. Just an observation.
Well, if they say it's not her, it probably isn't. If that's an innocent photo, someone is going to be outraged to find his picture all on the cable tv and internet.
BayNews 9 is reporting the girl in the photo is NOT Jessica Lunsford.
That's my reading, at any rate.
Nice that they just messed up this guy's life!! sheesh.
Possible photo of missing girl Jessica Lunsford with man in convenience store.
Her stance does look guarded - so does his if you ask me - both have their arms tightly crossed. I wonder what they purchased there?
all right, you want zingers, cheese curls or a milky way or what, come on...
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