Jun 21, 2007 6:00 pm US/Eastern
Dogs Pick Up Scent In Search For Missing Woman
Father's Home Searched For Second Time
CANTON, Ohio (CBS News) ―
According to CBS affiliate station WOIO-TV in Cleveland, Jesse Davis' sister, Whitney, tells 19 Action News a cadaver dog has found a freshly dug area during today's massive search.
Officials are looking into that development at this hour.
A volunteer group plans to renew efforts to find a missing pregnant woman, using community helpers, sonar equipment and a small drone airplane equipped with a camera to search rural areas around her home.
Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit group known for conducting searches on horseback, asked volunteers to gather Thursday morning outside a church near Davis' home in Lake Township in northeast Ohio.
"We feel very confident that they're going to help us find Jessie, hopefully bring her back safe," younger sister Whitney Davis said.
Jessie Davis, who was due to deliver her baby July 3, was last heard from in a telephone call with her mother, Patricia Porter, on June 13.
"We're holding onto that hope that maybe she's still alive out there and that would be the greatest thing in the world, but realistically we know after a period of time that that normally doesn't happen," said Tim Miller, director of EquuSearch.
He has worked on hundreds of missing persons cases, including the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama, reported missing in Aruba in 2005.
"We're probably looking at somewhat of a miracle in this case. We also know if that person is deceased out there it's very important we find them as quickly as we can find them so they can determine cause of death," Miller said.
"It's sad but, you know, she's probably gone," dog owner Stephanie Dietrich told CBS affiliate WOIO. She and Rico searched for Davis Wednesday and were expected to be out looking again Thursday.
Many of the more than 1,000 searchers Thursday have taken off work or used vacation days to help, reports CBS News correspondent Teri Okita.
"We can all feel for her. As a mother, it's important," said Susan Patterson.
On Wednesday, for the second time in three days, investigators searched the home of the man who fathered Davis' 2-year-old son and unborn daughter, although authorities have repeatedly said Canton police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. is not a suspect.
However, WOIO's Johnathan Carter says there are reports that Cutts was read his Miranda Rights but not arrested, and that he's been named a suspect in Davis' disappearance.
Cutts, 30, told The (Canton) Repository he had nothing to do with Davis' disappearance, and that he has slept little and had no appetite since the 26-year-old woman vanished.
Sheriff's investigators and FBI agents carried out more than a dozen white cardboard boxes, a few brown bags and three large black plastic bags during a search that lasted more than three hours.
A legal order allowed investigators to obtain some of Davis' cell phone records, which are being reviewed, Stark County sheriff's Chief Deputy Rick Perez said at a news conference Wednesday.
Cutts, who also has two children with his wife, Kelly, said they are separated but have not filed for divorce and that his wife knew he had a relationship with Davis.
He said he last spoke with Davis at 8 p.m. on June 13, about 90 minutes before she last spoke with her mother.
Cutts' mother, Renee Horne, told the Repository that agents at her son's home were looking for Davis' cell phone and a quilt missing from the Davis's home.
Two-year-old Blake Davis had told investigators: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in the rug." Investigators believe he may have been referring to a missing comforter.
Horne said FBI agents questioned her son twice Wednesday, and read him his Miranda rights during the second interview. Investigators also took Cutts' two cell phones, Horne said.
WOIO's Ed Gallek reports investigators have brought in a helicopter with heat-sensing equipment, searching "areas of interest" from the air.
Meanwhile, authorities said DNA tests would not be finished until next week on a newborn girl left on a porch about 45 miles away from Davis' home. Authorities are trying to determine if the infant, less than 24 hours old when it was found Monday evening in Wooster, is related to Davis. A bottle and can of formula left in the basket with the newborn were sent to be tested for fingerprints or any other evidence.
Davis was reported missing Friday when her mother went to Davis' home and found the 2-year-old boy alone, wearing a dirty diaper. Furniture was askew and a pool of bleach was on the bedroom floor. The contents of Davis' purse were scattered in the kitchen.
On its Web site, the FBI lists the case as a kidnapping. But FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Cleveland said the label is standard whenever foul play is a possibility, and the agency doesn't know if Davis was abducted or not.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Davis' whereabouts. EquuSearch added a $5,000 reward.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
