Post by admin4laney on Sept 20, 2005 8:54:21 GMT -5
LAST UPDATE: 9/19/2005 6:56:21 PM
"Most of the investigators working with me, it's become an obsession for most of us at this point."
An obsession over murder, one of Butler County's Cold Cases sets off a massive river search for a clue. Four search vessels from three counties teamed up for a 51 nautical mile search Monday. They used divers, salvage teams and a new high tech underwater camera to search for a murder victim's car.
Laney Gwinner was found in the Ohio River in Warsaw Kentucky in January 1997, one month after she disappeared. There are scientific reasons to believe her car in still in the river. As Local 12's Deborah Dixon tells, there is a haunting reason to believe people know where it is.
Search teams moved from the Great Miami River to Warsaw Kentucky on the Indiana side...and back on the Kentucky side focusing on anywhere a boat...or car could go in. If a car sinks in the river it pretty much goes to the bottom and sticks there. Even with a flood, it wouldn't go far. And new high tech Sidescan Sonar can locate and identify images from the river floor. Monday's search is the first of several target areas for Laney Gwinner's car, believed to be her first watery grave.
Spec Frank Smith, Butler County Sheriff's Cold Case Commander: We have recovered vehicles a lot longer than this one's been there, recovered evidence off it possible, yes."
Smith and other Butler County Sheriff's Detectives on the case believe Laney was in the car when it was put in the river, then floated out, perhaps when debris broke a window. When her body was found a month after she disappeared, something protected her from the river rocks and debris.
Spec Mike Grimes, Butler County Sheriff's Office: "Lack of injury to body, damage to clothing, those types of things indicate someone not in the water thirty days."
Frank Smith is haunted by one tip to CrimeStoppers before Laney's body was found. Before Laney was found in the Ohio River, a tipsters told police to look for her car in the river near California.
"When we have a victim turn up two weeks later, after the call, someone has knowledge of what happened."
The call to CrimeStoppers two weeks before Laney's body was found in the river, backs up what Frank Smith believes...that the killer is in the Tri-State. A killer Smith says he can track down... with or without Laney's black Honda Del Sol.
Deborah Dixon Local 12.
www.wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=92DFD18C-C230-4171-BDB4-6D7A6E348F47
"Most of the investigators working with me, it's become an obsession for most of us at this point."
An obsession over murder, one of Butler County's Cold Cases sets off a massive river search for a clue. Four search vessels from three counties teamed up for a 51 nautical mile search Monday. They used divers, salvage teams and a new high tech underwater camera to search for a murder victim's car.
Laney Gwinner was found in the Ohio River in Warsaw Kentucky in January 1997, one month after she disappeared. There are scientific reasons to believe her car in still in the river. As Local 12's Deborah Dixon tells, there is a haunting reason to believe people know where it is.
Search teams moved from the Great Miami River to Warsaw Kentucky on the Indiana side...and back on the Kentucky side focusing on anywhere a boat...or car could go in. If a car sinks in the river it pretty much goes to the bottom and sticks there. Even with a flood, it wouldn't go far. And new high tech Sidescan Sonar can locate and identify images from the river floor. Monday's search is the first of several target areas for Laney Gwinner's car, believed to be her first watery grave.
Spec Frank Smith, Butler County Sheriff's Cold Case Commander: We have recovered vehicles a lot longer than this one's been there, recovered evidence off it possible, yes."
Smith and other Butler County Sheriff's Detectives on the case believe Laney was in the car when it was put in the river, then floated out, perhaps when debris broke a window. When her body was found a month after she disappeared, something protected her from the river rocks and debris.
Spec Mike Grimes, Butler County Sheriff's Office: "Lack of injury to body, damage to clothing, those types of things indicate someone not in the water thirty days."
Frank Smith is haunted by one tip to CrimeStoppers before Laney's body was found. Before Laney was found in the Ohio River, a tipsters told police to look for her car in the river near California.
"When we have a victim turn up two weeks later, after the call, someone has knowledge of what happened."
The call to CrimeStoppers two weeks before Laney's body was found in the river, backs up what Frank Smith believes...that the killer is in the Tri-State. A killer Smith says he can track down... with or without Laney's black Honda Del Sol.
Deborah Dixon Local 12.
www.wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=92DFD18C-C230-4171-BDB4-6D7A6E348F47
