ARCHIVED ARTICLE: Police Check With Experts As Search Continues For 3-Year-Old - 5/26/2006

Police Check With Experts As Search Continues For 3-Year-Old
May 26 2006 12:00AM
http://www.ap.org

Associated Press

Minot, N.D. - Police say they have spoken with FBI behavioral scientists as well as psychics in their search for 3-year-old Reachelle Smith.

The search for the child continued Friday in her home neighborhood. She was last seen the night of May 16.

Police Capt. Al Hanson said investigators had a conference call with FBI behavioral scientists for about an hour to discuss the case and sent them tapes from interviews "to pore through and see if there's anything that they think we've missed."

"We've got some dogs in, we're going to try to bring some more dogs in, just to double, triple check," Hanson said. "We have two experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children here, helping us. Of course, the behavioral scientists - we're reaching out to anything and everything that we can think of.

"Psychics have given general suggestions, such as water or tall grass, he said, and all leads are checked out.

Hanson said he still hopes to find Reachelle alive.

"I'd be lying if I said we didn't think the possibility exists that she could be dead, because we're searching garbage dumps and rivers and such, but we want to cover all our bases," he said. "I still think there's a possibility that she's alive."

Crews sifted through garbage in the city landfill on Thursday and began drawing down the Mouse River channel near the girl's home. The landfill search turned up no sign of her. Hanson said the drawdown of the river channel would take a couple of days.

A search Thursday of Roosevelt Park in central Minot also came up empty, Hanson said. About 20 off-duty police officers volunteered to search the park, he said.

The Upper Souris Wildlife Refuge was searched earlier, after the body of Leigh Cowen, 22, was found in a van there Tuesday. Authorities suspected he had taken Reachelle. They said he killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning, but there was no sign of the child.

Reachelle Smith was put to bed at about 10:30 p.m. on May 16 at her home in Minot and was missing the next day, police said. She lived with her aunt, Stephanie Smith, who was her legal guardian, police said. Her and her mother, Samantha Smith, have said she has asthma and needs treatment.

Police suspicions centered on Cowen after he told Stephanie Smith that Reachelle was with his mother, who had sometimes cared for the girl, and then disappeared, Hanson said. Police later learned that Cowen's mother did not know the girl's whereabouts and issued an Amber Alert.

"Mr. Cowen gave an explanation to the custodial mother and that was, in her mind, enough to go on until he disappeared and the vehicle disappeared. She started to question that and followed up," Hanson said.

Cowen's mother has been questioned several times in Kansas, Hanson said. "We have no reason to believe that she's involved," he said.