During the night of Tuesday, Oct. 4, 10-month-old Lisa Irwin was taken from her home. Lisa’s mother and father, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, have appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and the nightly news numerous times, pleading for their baby to be brought home bringing national attention to the local disappearance. Still, the search continues for the missing infant with new twists in the case.
The search for Lisa nationwide, after close to three weeks since her disappearance, has had some new developing breaks recently. Breaks include finding used diapers and a man’s clothing left behind at an abandoned house near the Irwin home, and Bradley admitting she was under the influence of alcohol the night of the disappearance.
This break in the case could impact the amount of trust put in Bradley’s failure of the lie detector test that occurred closer to the date of the disappearance. This, in addition to Bradley and Irwin taking a “break from the investigation” just a few days after the disappearance, has the potential to skew knowledge the police believed to previously have. Science teacher Mary Beth Mattingly said the “break” from the investigation would be difficult for a normal parent to do.
“Until you’re a parent, you can’t understand the feeling [of being a parent],” Mattingly said. “The emotional bond between a mother and her child is unbelievable, you never give up. If you are a normal [parent] that bond will drive you to search ‘til death.”
The previous search that was conducted, now being redone, has lead police and FBI across all of Kansas City and even into Shawnee, the Deffenbaugh dump.
“Finding baby Lisa will give hope to all those people who have been lost…people need to feel like [their] children’s safety is a priority,” senior Holly Hampton said.
Mattingly said the situation is saddening all together.
“It’s another tragic story of a little innocent life where we don’t know the outcome if the baby is alive or dead,” Mattingly said. “It is an innocent life potentially lost where all life is precious.”
