By Rex Hall Jr. | Kalamazoo Gazette
May 13, 2010, 11:44PM
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Tire marks found at the scene of Venus Rose Stewart’s disappearance appear to match the tire treads from her estranged husband’s pickup truck, documents show.
A Michigan State Police crime lab technician who compared photos of tire impressions found near Stewart’s parents’ home in Colon Township and photos of the tires on Douglas Harrie Stewart’s silver 2005 four-door Dodge pickup truck said the photos “showed general tread pattern agreement,” according to a search warrant affidavit obtained Thursday by the Kalamazoo Gazette from Newport News, Va., Circuit Court.
Courtesy Photo
Venus Stewart
The search warrant affidavits also show troopers found signs of a struggle and clear plastic packaging for a tarp after they responded April 26 to the 55000 block of Driftwood Drive on a report that Venus Stewart, 32, was missing. Investigators have said they believe the mother of two, who was last seen wearing pajamas, was abducted between 7:10 and 8:30 a.m.
A neighbor told police that at about 7 a.m. April 26, she spotted a “light gray colored” pickup truck with four doors parked in a field near her residence and that a white male was “crouched behind” the vehicle. Five minutes later, the truck was gone, the search warrant affidavit says.
Police have identified Douglas Stewart, 29, of Newport News, as the sole person of interest in his wife’s apparent abduction and they disclosed earlier this week that a search of his Dodge pickup truck turned up suspected blood and a receipt for a tarp, gloves, shovel and a hat purchased April 25 from a Walmart in Ohio.
A search warrant executed May 5 shows that the suspected blood was found on the inside of the truck’s driver-side door above the handle.
Another search warrant shows that police also found suspected blood during a search of a 1998 Mercury Sable that belongs to Douglas Stewart and that former neighbors of the Stewarts in Schoolcraft reported seeing what was believed to be the Stewarts’ Sable “cruising the neighborhood” April 25.
State Police Lt. Mike Risko said Thursday that police were still awaiting results of crime-lab analysis on the suspected blood found in both vehicles. The search warrants show that investigators also took fingerprints, palm prints and DNA swabs from Douglas Stewart on May 5.
Courtesy photo
Douglas H. Stewart
As their investigation continues, Risko said, police are trying to transport Douglas Stewart’s pickup truck back to Michigan for further analysis and to get a closer look at the tires. The crime lab technician who compared the photos of the tire impressions found near the scene of Venus Stewart’s disappearance and photos of Douglas Stewart’s truck tires “indicated she would need the actual tires from the Stewart pickup for more thorough, further analysis,” according to the search warrant affidavit.
Risko said the pickup truck and Mercury Sable were still in the possession of Newport News police, as of Thursday.
Meanwhile, a group of volunteers led by Denny Olson, of Vicksburg, was to search for Venus Stewart this morning in Colon and north to Leonidas and Fulton. They also planned to search areas to the east of Colon to Interstate 69.
Olson said Thursday he did not know how many volunteers might take part in today’s search but that members of Venus Stewart’s family, including her mother and father, Therese and Larry McComb, were expected to participate.
Police ask anyone who may have information about Venus Stewart to call the Michigan State Police post in White Pigeon at 269-483-7611 or its Regional Dispatch Center in Rockford at 616-866-6666.
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