Thu, Nov 26 2009
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Search for missing Stella girl continues Jeff Lanza, a special agent and FBI spokesman, said about 40 of the approximately 50 FBI personnel on hand are agents. The bureau, he said, is assisting the Sheriff’s Department with searching for Rowan, processing physical evidence and interviewing people.
He said federal authorities were processing evidence gathered from “indoor locations,” although he declined to be specific. Copeland said about 75 people, including students from Missouri Southern State University’s police academy in Joplin, helped search Wednesday in outdoor locations in Stella and Newton County. Spears saw Rowan just before she left home at 8:30 p.m. Friday to go to work at the Wal-Mart store in Jane. David Spears, Rowan’s stepfather, and two of his male friends were with the girl at the home until they decided to go out together about 10:45 p.m. The stepfather told investigators that he looked in on the girl in her bedroom before leaving, and she was asleep. David Spears did not return to the house until about midnight, when one of his friends dropped him off, the sheriff said. Copeland said Spears told investigators that he did not check on Rowan again before going to bed, although he later acknowledged to investigators that he left the home a second time. Copeland said Spears made a phone call to his mother sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday and asked to use her vehicle. She took it to him about 1:30 a.m. and stayed at his house while he left in the vehicle for about 5 1/2 hours, the sheriff said. The stepgrandmother told investigators that she never checked on Rowan while she was there watching television. Copeland said Wednesday that David Spears still has not given an account of what he did during those 5 1/2 hours. “We would very much like to know where that time was spent,” he said. David Spears told the Globe in an interview Monday that he made a mistake in leaving Rowan alone at the house and in initially misleading police. He said he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and that he has since told the authorities everything he knows. Hunting season Despite the onset of deer-hunting season, Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said authorities will continue to search outdoors for Rowan Ford this weekend if there are leads. He advised against residents conducting their own searches of the woods because of the potential for accidents but said he is asking that hunters be watchful for anything that might help authorities find the girl. 
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