Posted on 10/10/2005 7:20:42 AM PDT by newgeezer
BY BOB LINK, Of The Globe Gazette
Editor's note: This is the second of a two-day series of reports on the death of Evelyn Miller of Floyd, investigated by the Globe Gazette and the Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier, Lee Enterprises newspapers.
CHARLES CITY —Investigators have released very little about their findings in the murder of Evelyn Miller.
In the days following the discovery of the 5-year-old’s body in the Cedar River, Floyd County Attorney Marilyn Dettmer announced that the case was a homicide and little else. No one has been charged and no suspects have been identified by authorities.
Media cameras have captured law enforcement executing search warrants at various locations in Floyd County while family members and neighbors of Evelyn’s mother, Noel Miller and her fiancé, Casey Frederiksen, have shared what they know about various police inquiries, but virtually no official information has been made public.
The investigation team includes Dettmer and officers and agents from the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Dettmer has been consistent in her position that the murder investigation is a priority and that investigators have not released information in an effort to protect the integrity of the case.
“Even though three months have passed,” Dettmer said Thursday, “the investigation is very intense. New developments come to our attention on a daily basis.”
Dettmer said she is optimistic there will be a “positive resolution” to law enforcement’s effort.
But Noel Miller has been critical of law enforcement officials, sometimes claiming they didn’t do enough in the early stages of her daughter’s disappearance.
Records show that the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department was called at 6:46 a.m. on July 1, and search parties were organized later in the day.
Floyd County Sheriff Rick Lynch and Deputy Sheriff Brian Tiedemann organized search parties that went for six days and included more than 1,300 North Iowans.
Agents from the Iowa DCI say they were involved on the first day of the search while the FBI joined on the second day, July 2.
Officials from both the DCI and the FBI declined to comment on the on-going investigation, but have explained their affiliation to the case.
“We are an assist agency,” said DCI Agent in Charge Bill Basler. “The only way can become involved is if we are asked by a sheriff or police department. That did occur in Evelyn’s case. The request came from the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.”
Basler said DCI agents were on the scene by the afternoon of July 1.
“As the first day progressed,” said Basler, “I was called by the FBI’s Cedar Rapids office. They were offering assistance, which we accepted.”
Craig Sorum, a supervisor special agent from the Cedar Rapids office of the FBI, said his agency becomes involved when “children of tender age — under 12 years old” are feared abducted or kidnapped.
Sorum said two FBI agents were in Floyd County on July 2, assisting with “critical interviews.”
Tiedemann, Basler, DCI Agent Jeff Jacobson and FBI Agent Randy VanGent have been seen at a number of the locations where search warrants were executed.
Both Basler and VanGent were involved in other high profile cases in North Iowa, most notably the arrests and convictions of Dustin Honken and Angela Johnson, who have been recommended to receive the death penalty for the 1993 murders of five North Iowans.
Sorum said a homicide does not qualify as a federal crime unless it involves a federal official.
“Our role in this case is to provide support and resources to the local authorities,” Sorum said. “We will continue to support them any way we can in the investigation.”
Reach Bob Link at 421-0538 or bob.link@globegazette.com.
Lost Innocent: Details of Evelyn Miller's life paint picture filled with drugs and neglect ^
Posted by richierichIII
On News/Activism ^ 10/09/2005 3:54:37 PM CDT
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