2005-01-26

Web-posted Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Autopsy of a Search

Parties hail APD efforts in Wagner case

By KRIS ABBEY
kris.abbey@amarillo.com
Amarillo Globe-News

Canine Expert: A dog called Aimme rides across Lawrence Lake on Thursday with Marta Brown, Carol Roberts and Bill Roberts of Panhandle Search and Rescue. The volunteers located the body of Kelly Katherine Wagner, who had been missing since Dec. 27.
Henry Bargas / henry.bargas@amarillo.com

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Lakeside Vigil: Robin and Sloan Kritser, family members of Kelly Katherine Wagner, wait with Sgt. Mark Brown of the Amarillo Police Department during a search Thursday at Lawrence Lake. Volunteers from the Panhandle Search and Rescue dog team found Wagner's body. The 28-year-old Amarillo woman had been missing since Dec. 27.
Henry Bargas / henry.bargas@amarillo.com

A private investigator involved in the search for Kelly Katherine Wagner said police did their part.
Wagner's family hired Larry Barlow shortly after the 28-year-old Amarillo woman went missing Dec. 27. The Amarillo Police Department also mounted a missing-person investigation. On Jan. 2, officers found Wagner's vehicle parked at Peppertree Terrace Apartments near Lawrence Lake. The Land Rover had a broken window and officers found some blood in the vehicle.

However, after all leads were exhausted, it was Barlow - rather than APD - who returned to "square one" and instigated the water search 2 weeks later at Lawrence Lake that led to the discovery of Wagner's body on Thursday.

Preliminary autopsy results showed no signs of foul play. With final autopsy results pending, police continue to investigate the case as a suspicious death.

Barlow said his role in the Wagner case was not the result of any dissatisfaction the family might have had with APD's handling of the case. He said the family hired him because an attorney advised them to.

"This wasn't a battle between a private investigator and the police department," he said.

Barlow, who served 30 years at APD before retiring in 1998, said APD has handled the case appropriately from the beginning.

"I think that they did exactly what I would expect the police to do. I think that they followed up every lead that I gave them," he said. "I feel like they did what they were supposed to do."

APD Sgt. Mark Brown, a former homicide investigator who now works in APD's detective division, is handling the case. He and Barlow coordinated the search that located Wagner's body. APD's dive team recovered the body.

The Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit also is taking a role in the investigation now, though the case has not been declared a homicide. Barlow said the circumstances of the case did not call for earlier involvement by Special Crimes.

APD Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said Tuesday that Lt. Gary Trupe, Special Crimes Coordinator, will provide more details about Special Crimes' role as the case progresses. Investigators are waiting for final autopsy results including toxicology tests, which may indicate more about how Wagner died.

Neufeld said Trupe indicated he would make no further comments now about APD dive team procedures or the use of the search and rescue dog in the case.

APD and Special Crimes have come under criticism after the media learned that Barlow had contacted the Panhandle Search and Rescue dog team to do a search of Lawrence Lake.

Trupe and Brown made comments that day suggesting they did not arrange for the water search themselves because they did not know about the PANSAR team's qualifications and did not have access to the dogs.

PANSAR, a nonprofit group, has been operating in the area more than 10 years and has assisted in a number of high-profile cases including the search for Dorien Thomas, a 9-year-old Amarillo boy who disappeared in 1998.

Marta Brown, president of PANSAR, said she faults herself for not keeping local law enforcement agencies informed about her group and the capabilities of the dogs.

"We as handlers need to get the word out as far as what our dogs can do," Marta Brown said.

Aimme, the German Shepherd who located Wagner's body in Lawrence Lake, is a certified human-remains search dog and is trained to do "air scent" searches on land and water.

Marta Brown said Aimme has been certified for several years. Other dogs owned by PANSAR volunteers have been involved in land and water searches including a 145-day search at Lake Meredith after an Amarillo man and his three sons drowned while on a duck-hunting trip in 1996.

Marta Brown said Barlow and Mark Brown both met with her the day before the search to discuss logistics. Though Barlow was the one who located PANSAR and requested a search dog, APD immediately got involved, she said.

"I do not believe in any way, form or fashion that APD was dragging their feet," she said. "They acted on the information they had."

Mark Brown said in a previous interview that he and Barlow also both had searched the lake perimeter on foot before PANSAR was called in.

Another question that has hounded authorities is whether Wagner's death is linked to a fire on Jan. 7 that destroyed a building at Peppertree Terrace Apartments, the complex where police located Wagner's vehicle on Jan. 2.

Dennis Gwyn, a deputy fire marshal at the Amarillo Fire Marshal's Office, said he found nothing to suggest a connection between the fire and Wagner's disappearance.

Gwyn said the fire started accidentally after heat from a fire in a fireplace became intense enough to ignite structural materials in the space behind the fireplace.

He said his office has heard plenty of rumors about whether the Wagner case is related to the fire, but the only common factor seems to be location.

APD Sgt. Randy TenBrink said the department shares Gwyn's opinion.

"We don't believe there is any link between Kelly Wagner's death and the Peppertree Terrace apartment fire," TenBrink said. "We take it from the fire marshal about what the cause of the fire was and it has nothing to do with her death."
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