Article courtesy of CNN.com
Group to use sonar, drone in search for pregnant woman
POSTED: 10:28 a.m. EDT, June 21, 2007
var clickExpire = "07/21/2007"; Story Highlights
• Group known for searches on horseback has volunteers gather Thursday
• Group has conducted hundreds of searches, including one for Natalee Holloway
• Father of woman's son says he's had no sleep or appetite since disappearance
• Father, also a police officer, has been questioned twice, once after Miranda rights CANTON, Ohio
(AP) -- A volunteer group gathered early Thursday to search rural areas
around the home of a missing woman who was nine months' pregnant when
she disappeared.
Texas EquuSearch, an internationally active
search team, brought in sonar equipment to check ponds and a
remote-control airplane equipped with a camera to look for any sign of
Jessie Davis.
About 150 volunteers joined them on the ground in northeast Ohio's Lake Township.
"They're going to help us find Jessie, hopefully, bring her back safe," younger sister Whitney Davis said.
Jessie
Davis, who was due to deliver her baby July 3, was last heard from in a
telephone call with her mother, Patricia Porter, on June 13. (Watch Davis' mother describe how she found the house in disarray 
)
"We're
holding on to that hope that maybe she's still alive out there and that
would be the greatest thing in the world, but realistically we know
after a period of time that that normally doesn't happen," said Tim
Miller, director of EquuSearch.
He has worked on hundreds of
missing persons cases, including the disappearance of 18-year-old
Natalee Holloway of Alabama, reported missing in Aruba in 2005.
"We're
probably looking at somewhat of a miracle in this case. We also know if
that person is deceased out there it's very important we find them as
quickly as we can find them so they can determine cause of death,"
Miller said.
Officer's home searched again
On
Wednesday, for the second time in three days, investigators searched
the home of the man who fathered Davis' 2-year-old son and possibly her
unborn daughter, although authorities have repeatedly said Canton
police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. is not a suspect.
Cutts, 30,
told The (Canton) Repository he had nothing to do with Davis'
disappearance, and that he has had little sleep and no appetite since
the 26-year-old woman vanished.
Porter told CNN on Wednesday that
after the weeklong search for her daughter, she fears the worst.
Compounding matters is authorities' focus on Cutts.
"It's a
very emotional roller coaster feeling for me because he is my
grandson's father," she said. "It will be a week since I've spoke to
her, and it is not looking good, but I just -- I'm hoping and praying
for the best. I just want to find my daughter." (Watch Davis' mom discusses her fears )
Porter further said that if someone did harm her daughter, she hopes it was a stranger.
"This
is the most painful part of this whole thing for me is that I pray
every day that it's not Bobby Cutts, that it's my prayer that it's not
him," she told CNN. "I want it to be someone that doesn't even know us."
Sheriff's
investigators and FBI agents carried out more than a dozen white
cardboard boxes, a few brown bags and three large black plastic bags
during a search that lasted more than three hours.
A legal order
allowed investigators to obtain some of Davis' cell phone records,
which are being reviewed, Stark County sheriff's Chief Deputy Rick
Perez said at a news conference Wednesday.
Cutts, who also has
two children with his wife, Kelly, said they are separated but have not
filed for divorce and that his wife knew he had a relationship with
Davis.
He said he last spoke with Davis at 8 p.m. on June 13, about 90 minutes before she last spoke with her mother.
Cutts'
mother, Renee Horne, told the Repository that agents at her son's home
were looking for Davis' cell phone and a quilt missing from the Davis'
home.
DNA results awaited after newborn found
Two-year-old
Blake Davis had told investigators: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the
table. Mommy's in rug." Investigators believe he may have been
referring to a missing comforter.
Horne said FBI agents
questioned her son twice Wednesday, and read him his Miranda rights
during the second interview. Investigators also took Cutts' two cell
phones, Horne said.
Meanwhile, authorities said DNA tests would
not be finished until next week on a newborn girl left on a porch about
45 miles away from Davis' home. (Watch how police are trying to determine if the newborn belongs to Davis )
Authorities
are trying to determine if the infant, less than 24 hours old when she
was found Monday evening in Wooster, is related to Davis. A bottle and
can of formula left in the basket with the newborn were sent to be
tested for fingerprints or any other evidence.
Davis was reported
missing Friday when her mother went to Davis' home and found her
2-year-old grandson alone, wearing a dirty diaper. Furniture was askew
and a pool of bleach was on the bedroom floor. The contents of Davis'
purse were scattered in the kitchen.
On its Web site, the FBI
lists the case as a kidnapping. But FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in
Cleveland said the label is standard whenever foul play is a
possibility, and the agency doesn't know if Davis was abducted.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Davis' whereabouts. EquuSearch added a $5,000 reward.