So why is a lost girl not just cause to search all the houses on the street? Eventually they found out that he lived there - so why did it take so long. The police dropped the ball on this one.
The cops have to have permission to come into a person's house, let alone search it, unless they have a search warrant or the requirements for a warrantless search have been met.
In this case, the cops would have had to have had probable cause to believe that Jessica Lunsford was actually in that house.
I have no idea whether the police asked permission to search the house, but if they did, the owners said no.