Posted on 01/02/2006 2:18:26 PM PST by richierichIII
Nearly six months after Evelyn Miller disappeared, authorities say they are confident they will find justice for the slain 5-year-old.
“When, I don’t know. But will we? Yes,” Floyd County Sheriff Rick Lynch said Thursday.
Sunday will mark six months since Evelyn was reported missing from her rural Floyd apartment. Her body was found on July 6 in the Cedar River, two miles from her home.
Authorities say Evelyn was murdered, but details of when and how she was killed have not been made public. No arrests have been made in the case.
“I think it may take quite a bit longer than anyone initially thought, but I’m still optimistic,” County Attorney Marilyn Dettmer said Thursday. “Things continue to happen that make me feel that way.”
She said there were no official suspects in the case, but that it is moving forward.
“It’s still very much active,” she said. “We still continue to receive leads, the investigation is still headed up by the DCI and worked on on a daily basis.”
Since July 1, agents from the Division of Criminal Investigation, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office and FBI have executed about six search warrants and conducted hundreds of interviews.
“Every interview brings up another name or something,” Lynch said, adding, “People are still being contacted.”
He said several items have been sent to the DCI crime lab and are awaiting results.
“We were told in the beginning that it could take up to six to nine months, or even longer, before we get the results back,” Lynch said. “The FBI said it could not guarantee any faster results.”
Dettmer said some testing not available at the DCI lab was completed at the FBI’s facility, making for an even longer wait.
However, ongoing interviews continue to provide new leads and information in the investigation.
“Every interview brings up another name or something,” Lynch said.
He said new information led divers to search an undisclosed section of the Cedar River near Charles City in mid-November.
Though nothing of interest was found, he said, “It shows the progress that is going on in this case.”
Dettmer described the murder as “very complex,” both in the details of the crime and paths the investigation has taken.
In the first weeks of the case, several search warrants focused on two men last known Evelyn alive when they stopped at her apartment at 2 a.m. the morning she disappeared.
Randy Patrie, 33, and Dan Slick, 26, were not labeled as suspects by authorities and asserted they’d left Evelyn unharmed.
On Sept. 30, Evelyn’s mother’s live-in fiance was indicted on a federal charge of possession of child pornography. The indictment was later amended to include a second count of possession and 12 counts of receipt of child pornography.
Dettmer said the charges against Casey Frederiksen, 26, of Charles City, were related to the murder investigation, “Only to the extent that he was obviously the fiance of Noel Miller.
“It’s a whole different crime, a whole different investigation and a whole different prosecution.”
Frederiksen is being held in Linn County Jail awaiting an April trial date.
Floyd Mayor Trevis O’Connell said he and citizens in his community remained supportive local officials’ handling of the case after six months.
“Sometimes a certain amount of things line up and it just takes time,” he said. “I still have total confidence in the sheriff and county attorney.”
Anyone with information on the disappearance and murder of Evelyn Miller is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (641) 228-1821 or county attorney’s office at (641) 228-7571. A $5,000 reward has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
More updates at http://evelynmillermemories.blogspot.com/
My impression watching this case from the beginning is that the DA is not very competent and the case is growing colder by the day. There is no excuse for this sort of delay without anyone being questioned or any indictments.
Sure hope I'm mistaken.
The trail is still far from cold.
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