http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/BabyKateCSIWEB.mp3
The search for Ludington infant Katherine Phillips resumed over the weekend. ‘Baby Kate’ was last seen two years ago with her father, Sean Phillips. He’s now serving a 10-to-15 year sentence for her “unlawful imprisonment.” But investigators believe this is a homicide. In hopes of locating the baby’s remains, they’ve taken a unique approach to the investigation. They hope their biggest clues will come from the dirt caked inside the soles of Sean Phillips’ shoes.
Like Something You’d See On TV
If you like crime drama, you might think this is a decent plot line: A murder investigation where seeds and plants from the soles of the shoes of the main suspect crack the case. But it’s hardly normal for Mark Barnett, Ludington’s Chief of Police.
“In my recollection, after having been in law enforcement for a period of time, I think this is a unique opportunity, a unique operation,” says Barnett. “I don’t want to use the word CSI but that’s kind of what we’re looking at.”
At just after 9:00 on Saturday morning, the auditorium at Ludington High School filled with over a hundred people. Most are volunteers with skills you wouldn’t think to look for in a murder investigation. They’re plant enthusiasts: Botanists and Biologists, nature-lovers, and college students. Their objective: to trudge through the woods of northern Mason County to search for and identify some specific plants.
A Slow And Steady Search
Once outside, a team of a dozen-plus volunteers, experts, and officers line up and duct tape the bottom of their pants to keep out the ticks. In front of them is wild forest with brush as tall as people, ferns, trees, even a pond off to the left.
An officer calls to make sure everyone is ready. And then he tells the volunteers to go ahead, moving at their own pace. The team proceeds forward in a line, pushing through the brush, some using a laminated cheat sheet to help them identify the sought-after plants.
Back at the time of Baby Kate’s disappearance, a search for her whereabouts came up empty. The search area was far too large. But then investigators brought in leading plant scientists. They analyzed dirt found on Phillips’ shoes. And they got lucky. Scientists identified a plant that’s not very common in the Ludington area, another plant that’s not commonly found near the first, and still other plants that like to live near wetlands.
The logic is that, if investigators can find an area or a pathway where this rare combination of plants and soil coexist, they might be able to guess where Phillips went the day his daughter disappeared.
While searching in the woods, the team stops at about 20 feet in, holding the line. One scientist thinks he may have spotted a moss on the list. Officers take a picture, mark the location with a flag, collect a sample and make a record. And so the process continues.
But This Isn’t Television
In a television crime drama this always works. In this investigation, it will only work if the soil on Phillips’ shoes comes from the “peaceful place” where he once wrote he placed his daughter.
Phillips was apprehended the same afternoon his daughter went missing. So Michigan State University Plant Biologist Frank Telewski is optimistic the soil he’s looked at holds key evidence.
“The most recent area is going to be represented on the shoe,” says Telewski. “Something that was there previously, even if it was a matter of an hour or a half an hour earlier – depending upon how far you walked – may have actually been worn off.”
Telewski’s trying to make the point that soil found on Phillips’ shoes was likely fresh.
But what if it was too fresh?
Covering New Ground
High-ranking officers and the scientists aren’t worried. They’re confident that analyzing the data from this weekend’s operation will allow them to narrow the search area enough to solve this case and bring some peace to a family that’s been living with the unknown for two years.
And Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole says they also feel like they’re in uncharted territory.
“The Chief of Police and I were talking this morning and we were talking about the search and where it’s – I don’t like to use the word evolved to – but where it’s come from and where we’re at now and… you don’t read a book to do this,” says Cole. “We’re writing the book.”