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Police seek sex offender in missing girl's case
« on: Mar 16th, 2005, 4:53pm » |
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Police seek sex offender to question in missing girl case
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Posted: 1:12 PM EST (1812 GMT)
(CNN) -- Florida authorities on Wednesday will release the name of a man they want to question in a missing girl case, about a day earlier than planned, a spokeswoman for the Citrus County Sheriff's Department said Wednesday.
They also plan to release his photograph.
The man is a convicted sex offender who had been living in the Citrus County area and was last seen in Savannah, Georgia, law enforcement sources said.
He is one of many convicted sex offenders investigators are looking at as standard procedure, the sources said. The man also has an outstanding warrant for failure to report to his probation officer, they said.
Sheriff Jeff Dawsy told reporters Tuesday that he would give investigators 48 hours to find the "person of interest" in the case of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford before he made the name and picture public.
Instead he will hold a news conference at 5:30 p.m. ET, the spokeswoman said.
Dawsy told reporters the man wanted for questioning is part of Jessica Lunsford's family, social, school or church circles and may have come into contact with her before she disappeared.
He said the man probably lives in another state.
"I think he knows we want to talk with him," he said.
Police in Savannah had stopped the man on an unrelated matter, the sources said, but released him because there was no request to hold him.
"We believe he's on the run," said one law enforcement source. Investigators will not say if they have physical evidence to link this "person of interest" to the missing girl.
Dawsy also said that a recent polygraph test given to Jessica's grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, 73, contained two responses that "raised red flags" for investigators.
He said that the stress may have affected her answers. The FBI also interviewed her Monday.
Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father, said Wednesday he does not rest his hopes on the person of interest being the answer to the mystery in his daughter's disappearance. He also said he understands why his relatives remain suspects.
"I don't really worry about stuff like that," he said. "I know my mom and dad. I brush it off.
"The only thing I have on my mind is finding Jessie."
Lunsford asked for volunteers for a weekend search, beginning at 7 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday.
"I truly believe that my daughter is alive and that she is coming home," he said.
Ruth Lunsford said Wednesday she has "faith, and I know that Jessie's coming home."
"I know we can get through it," she said. "God can perform miracles, and I know our law enforcement is behind us 100 percent."
Mark Lunsford, 41, said he has no "problems with the way the sheriff's department is doing its job."
"I have confidence in my sheriff's department, and I truly believe in my heart that my daughter is coming home," Lunsford said, his voice breaking for the only time in a 10-minute briefing with reporters. "I just don't know when. Sometimes it is a little hard to swallow, but you just swallow it and keep going because that's what you have to do."
Lunsford told reporters they know as much about the person of interest as he does.
"All my friends are here, so I don't really know what's going on with that," he said.
Dawsy said investigators have generated about 3,000 leads, but no others are considered strong.
Jessica was discovered missing the morning of February 24. Except for an open front door, her home in Homosassa -- a community of about 2,300 on the Gulf Coast, about 60 miles north of Tampa -- was undisturbed, with no signs of a struggle.
Jessica is 4 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 70 pounds, has light brown hair and was last reported wearing a pink nightgown.
The only thing missing from the girl's room was a doll, a purple dolphin.
Polygraphs given to both Mark Lunsford and his father, Archie Lunsford, 72, raised no immediate concerns to investigators.
A 14-member task force is working on the case full time, Dawsy said Wednesday.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton and his wife, Kautia, who live in Homosassa during the offseason, have offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the girl's location and return.
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