Police have issued public appeals to Bradley and Irwin for separate unrestricted interviews to follow up on issues raised at their last formal interrogation on Oct. 8.
Conducting separate interviews is a standard police procedure. Officers even do it at traffic accident scenes, where they pull drivers and witnesses apart to speak to them. So they certainly wouldnt deviate from the practice in a missing-child case, said Capt. Steve Young, a Kansas City police spokesman.
We want to know what they have to say on their own, Young said.
The parents also have refused to allow police to have specially trained social workers reinterview their older children from previous relationships, boys ages 6 and 8 who were at the home when Lisa disappeared.
As a general rule, police do not interview children who are witnesses. Instead, they refer them to a child protection center, where social workers talk to the children. Police are not allowed in the room.
In the Irwin case, social workers talked to one boy for 30 minutes and the other boy for 50 minutes the day Lisa vanished. Police have not been able to send the boys back to the center.
