As a lawyer, could you explain what sort of information LE would have needed to provide to obtain a search warrant for his home/car?
I am confused by the dismissal of him as a POI by some. They haven't just picked a random guy and searched his home without reason. But I'd be interested to hear exactly how much LE would have had to have known to obtain a warrant. TIA
To Kill a Mockingbird? [emoji849]
Yeah, sure. Sorry it took so long to reply! I was trying to catch up and I guess I missed your post. Keep in mind that everything I'm about to type is hypothetical because I don't have any inside info pertaining to this investigation.
From my understanding, they seized her car pretty quickly. If they found prints or any other evidence of another person being in that car with her (a paycheck stub, a grocery receipt from a transaction paid for with a credit card, etc.), they could have been alerted to a potential suspect or a witness. Depending on the eyewitness accounts of who she was seen with last, security camera footage, timelines and potential evidence from her Jeep, they may have had enough probable cause to get a warrant to search someone's house.
BUT. That's not the only way the cops could have searched a home. Remember the neighbor comments about how first there was "a raid" and then they took the car from the driveway and came back a couple weeks later to do a search? That's potentially a big hint as to whether thy even had a warrant to search his home. Have you ever heard of "exigent circumstances"? If not, google it. The jist is that LE may be able to enter a property without a proper warrant if they believe there is immediate danger to a person or that significant evidence will be destroyed unless they intervene immediately. That'll allow them to enter the property and then the "plain site doctrine" essentially applies, meaning they can look around for evidence that is in plain view.
So... hypothetically, if they were able to get her phone records or ping her phone and determine that the last place her phone was at before it was turned off was that property, they may have believed she was alive and being held inside that home. If they reasonably thought she was being held hostage inside the home, they could have "raided" without a warrant, under exigent circumstances, in an attempt to rescue her.
Now, once they do that, anything in plain view may be used to obtain the next warrant to come back and search the next time. So, if they found her phone on the kitchen table, or her last worn clothes were thrown on the living room floor, etc., they would be able to get a proper warrant to return and search the home thoroughly. From my understanding of the neighbor reports, they seized the vehicle in the driveway during the first search/"raid," which might indicate that they saw something in plain view that may be evidentiary... for example, her coat was laying on the front seat or there was blood all over the back or something. Again, any evidence found ins De the seized car could then turn around to be used to obtain a warrant to come back to the house with forensic teams and the full yard.
Based on the timing, the neighbor's language ("raid" followed by a secondary "search"), the fact that the cops said they had evidence of a crime between the two home visits, etc., it wouldn't be a stretch to assume they probably found some type of evidence in that vehicle. Additionally, in the press conference, the mother mentioned the phone and the police intervened and seemingly indicated the keys were most important. This might be because they had already determined the location of the phone and just had kept it under wraps so as not to tip off anyone.
Again, all hypothetical. To get a warrant, you need to have probable cause. Fingerprints, eyewitness accounts, blood evidence, video footage, phone records, social media geotagging, etc., are all ways they can establish probable cause to get a search warrant. But as I said, they may not have needed one the first time they entered the property if they had reason to believe she was alive and locked up in the basement or something along those lines. Also, if any resident consents to letting to police come in to look around, they can enter without warrant. Again, if they did this the first time and then saw something in plain view, they could use whatever they saw to turn around and get the full forensics warrant for the second search.
Hope that helps you understand a little better!
