By DAVE CALDWELL, Staff Writer dcaldwell@minotdailynews.com
Eight weeks have passed since the disappearance of a little Minot girl, but Minot police detectives investigating the case are still pursuing all leads.
Reachelle Marie Smith, 3, was last seen on the night of May 16 when she was
put to bed in her home, and the last person to have seen her, 22-year-old Leigh
Cowen, was found dead a week later, the cause of death an apparent
suicide.
With Cowen’s death, police were left without a living suspect in Reachelle’s disappearance, providing a dead end that still vexes the detectives handling the investigation.
But that fact has done little to deter Minot police sergeants Dan Strandberg and Jason Sundbakken.‘‘We’re continuing to get leads,’’ Strandberg said. ‘‘Most of the leads we’re getting are not local leads, they’re from some distance away.’’ The detectives listed New York, Montana, Wyoming, California and Iowa as states they have received leads from recently.
‘‘We’re following up on anything that has any information we can follow up on,’’ Strandberg said. Unfortunately, many of the leads the detectives receive are simply not anything that can be followed up on, and their frustration with being unable to crack the case peeks through.
‘‘We’ll get some that will say; ‘We saw her at Fred’s Barbecue and she left in a green pickup,’’’ Strandberg said, ‘‘but what’s there to follow up on there? We might be able to find Fred’s Barbecue, but is he going to know who left in the green pickup Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.? No, he’s not.’’
However, Strandberg added, some of the leads have been solid enough to pursue.
‘‘Some of them have stuff we can follow up on, and we are,’’ he said. ‘‘For the most part we – or the authorities there – are finding the child that was seen and it hasn’t been her, so far.’’
The Internet has also taken a more prominent role in the search for Reachelle. A quick search Tuesday morning of the Google blog site turns up almost 250 hits on the words ‘‘Reachelle Smith.’’ The case has drawn many electronic leads for the detectives, in addition to resulting in many – sometimes hundreds – of phone calls.
Sundbakken said that at one point, some information was posted on the
popular Internet site (myspace.com) that resulted in a deluge of hang-up phone
calls that nearly shut down Minot’s 911 dispatch due to sheer volume.
‘‘Someone will e-mail me after using the information on the National Center for Mission and Exploited Children or the stuff on the (myspace.com) and say, ’I saw a child that looked just like that at Wal-Mart Saturday at 3:30 in the afternoon,’’’ Strandberg said. ‘‘If we can do any follow up on it, we certainly do.’’
The detectives said that the cherubic little girl they seek has many common characteristics physically with other 3-year-old girls.
‘‘I’ve got a video from a Wal-Mart in New York,’’ Strandberg said, ‘‘and we weren’t able to actually find that child, but you look at the video from a ways away, and, yeah it could be her, but it could be a lot of other kids that look similar.’’
The detectives are also keeping other avenues of communication open as well.
‘‘I’ve been corresponding with (Cowen’s) sister in England,’’ Sundbakken
said, ‘‘getting any information I can get from her. She’s kind of detached from
the situation, so there’s very little she’s been able to offer.’’
The detectives reiterated that if anyone locally that they haven’t talked to wishes to come forward with any information, that they can contact the police department any time at 852-0111.
Strandberg and Sundbakken were encouraged at the amount of attention the case has received from outside sources. Fox’s ‘‘America’s Most Wanted’’ and CBS’ ‘‘Without a Trace’’ and ‘‘The CBS Morning Show,’’ to name a few, have all aired information on the case, according to the detectives. They also mentioned the FBI, the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Minot AFB’s Office of Special Investigations and NCMEC as being of great assistance in helping with leads and providing information.
Although it’s been nearly two months since little Reachelle Smith disappeared, the detectives are holding out hope that the next tip will be the one that leads them to the missing girl. If it doesn’t, they won’t lose their resolve anytime soon.
‘‘I knew,’’ Strandberg said, describing the feeling on the very first day
of the investigation as he stood in the little girl’s home, ‘‘that this was
going to be the one that keeps us up at night.’’
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