Thursday, October 6, 2011

Omaha, NE: Search ends with no body

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning called off the backyard search for the remains of Jessica O'Grady, expressing disappointment that the search didn't turn up the 19-year-old woman's body.

Investigators showed up Wednesday at the home of Bob Edwards with a search warrant and ground-penetrating radar. Edwards' son, Christopher Edwards, was convicted in 2007 of killing O'Grady, his girlfriend at the time of her death.

Investigators spent much of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning digging behind Edwards' home, 1616 N. 111th St.

Dunning said investigators had received several tips concerning some yard work done at the home about the time of O'Grady's 2006 disappearance. Dunning said there was no permit for a “sizeable project” done in the backyard.

Ground-penetrating radar alerted investigators to a mass buried under a concrete patio at the home of Christopher Edwards' father, Bob Edwards. That mass turned out to be concrete and rocks about 16 or 18 inches beneath the ground.

Dunning said he regrets investigators didn't find O'Grady's remains, but stood behind the decision to dig up the yard.

“We'll go back and lick our wounds and continue investigating,” Dunning said.

Dunning said one item was found, and still needs to be analyzed. He declined to discuss the item.

Edwards has said he was not involved in the slaying O'Grady, a waitress and college student. His father has been a strident supporter.

Under lights powered by a generator, investigators on Wednesday broke up pieces of a 15-by-15-foot patio outside Bob Edwards' home. Officials said they had carefully dug about a foot into the earth before ending the probe for the night.

Dunning said the search was something akin to an archeological dig and involved a geologist.

“We are scraping, sanding, sifting, moving pieces of dirt,” Dunning said Wednesday night at press conference near the home at 1616 N. 111th St.

After obtaining a judge's approval for a search warrant, deputies used a cadaver-sniffing dog to search the grounds of Bob Edwards' yard. The dog did not alert officials to any potential remains, two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation said. Dunning, however, said the dog gave a “positive indication” that something was there.

Later, after the positive radar information, deputies obtained a second search warrant authorizing them to dig on the property.

The search came after comments from a relative of Edwards. That relative may have mentioned that work was being done in Bob Edwards' yard around the time of O'Grady's disappearance, one official said.

Dunning said three tips led investigators to look for evidence under the patio. At least one of the tips came from an Edwards relative.

Dunning said investigators would talk to the tipsters again, and that damage to Edwards' yard would eventually be paid for by county taxpayers.

Neighbors said Wednesday the yard had been sloped, but was leveled out and landscaped at some point.

Bob Edwards was a prominent spectator at his son's trial and was intensely involved in his son's defense.

After authorities found O'Grady's blood on Christopher Edwards' mattress, his father videotaped himself conducting a bizarre experiment with pig blood on a mattress.

In the videotape, he tested his son's claims that O'Grady had had her period while on the mattress and that her blood had spread throughout the mattress when Christopher Edwards tried to clean it up.

Prosecutors refuted that theory based on the amount of blood evidence. O'Grady's blood was found covering an 8-square-foot section of his mattress and splattered across his ceiling, two walls of his room and a television 10 feet away.

O'Grady was killed only hours after Edwards told friends he had made “a mistake” and gotten her pregnant, the second girlfriend he had impregnated.

Late Wednesday, Jessica O'Grady's relatives were hoping her remains would be found.

“We're disappointed but thankful there are leads and the Sheriff's Office is following up on them,” said an aunt, Shauna Stanzel.

Late Wednesday afternoon, a quarter of the backyard was blocked off with pieces of a gray tarpaulin shield that rose nearly as high as a deck. The area investigators were focusing on was just to the west of the deck.

At about 8:15 a law enforcement officials broke for dinner with six boxes of piazza ate on the south side of the house. Dunning said he hoped the search would solve the case's remaining mystery.

“This family's never had the luxury of having any closure,” he said.

A jury found Edwards guilty of second-degree murder in O'Grady's death. O'Grady's slaying came only hours after Edwards told friends he had made “a mistake” and gotten her pregnant, the second girlfriend he had impregnated.

Edwards was sentenced to 100 years to life in prison. He later asked for a new trial, asserting that there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. But the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld his conviction in July 2009.

O'Grady disappeared in May 2006 after going to Edwards' aunt's house near 130th and Blondo Streets, where he had been living. Friends had said O'Grady had mentioned that she was going to talk to Edwards about her concerns that she might be pregnant with his child.

Numerous searches by authorities and volunteers in 2006 turned up no signs of O'Grady's body. Among the areas searched were a drainage pond, the Papillion Creek, the Elkhorn River and areas around Cunningham Lake.

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