Post by dawn on Aug 3, 2010 19:13:02 GMT -5
Federal agents and police in two states on Tuesday were searching a Missouri man's business and home in connection with the investigation of 11 women found buried in the Albuquerque desert.
Police searched a business and a home owned by or connected to a Joplin, Mo., man and an officer was stationed outside another business that had a sign saying it was closed, according to the Joplin Globe and KODE/KSN TV.
Rob Erwin, 57, owns a health food store and photography studio in the southwest Missouri town, near the state's border with Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. His mother, Beulah Erwin, said her son, who never married, used to regularly travel to Albuquerque for the city's famed hot-air balloon festival but had not done so for at least six years.
"It doesn't make any sense why they would focus on him," she said. "That's the silliest thing I ever heard of."
The newspaper quoted Albuquerque detective Tod Babcock as saying the man was a person of interest, but police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby denied that the detective specifically named Erwin.
Hamby said she could not discuss the warrants because they are sealed, as were about a half dozen others served previously. She would not specify the locations for the searches.
Hamby also stressed that the Missouri warrants were for searches, not arrests.
The remains of the women and a fetus were unearthed in February 2009 after a hiker found bones in a 92-acre area that had been cleared for development.
Authorities have said nearly all the women worked as prostitutes before they disappeared between 2003 to early 2005.
Albuquerque police Chief Ray Schultz had said that his department was investigating men who hired prostitutes and were prone to violence. He had said the killer was mostly likely a man who acted alone, but would not elaborate.
Police searched a business and a home owned by or connected to a Joplin, Mo., man and an officer was stationed outside another business that had a sign saying it was closed, according to the Joplin Globe and KODE/KSN TV.
Rob Erwin, 57, owns a health food store and photography studio in the southwest Missouri town, near the state's border with Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. His mother, Beulah Erwin, said her son, who never married, used to regularly travel to Albuquerque for the city's famed hot-air balloon festival but had not done so for at least six years.
"It doesn't make any sense why they would focus on him," she said. "That's the silliest thing I ever heard of."
The newspaper quoted Albuquerque detective Tod Babcock as saying the man was a person of interest, but police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby denied that the detective specifically named Erwin.
Hamby said she could not discuss the warrants because they are sealed, as were about a half dozen others served previously. She would not specify the locations for the searches.
Hamby also stressed that the Missouri warrants were for searches, not arrests.
The remains of the women and a fetus were unearthed in February 2009 after a hiker found bones in a 92-acre area that had been cleared for development.
Authorities have said nearly all the women worked as prostitutes before they disappeared between 2003 to early 2005.
Albuquerque police Chief Ray Schultz had said that his department was investigating men who hired prostitutes and were prone to violence. He had said the killer was mostly likely a man who acted alone, but would not elaborate.
www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/03/authorities-searching-missouri-business-home-investigation-bodies-nm-desert/