It’s been over a week since baby Lisa Irwin went missing from her Kansas City, Missouri home, and all eyes have been on her mother who some believe either had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance, or knows what happened to her.
But what if she’s not guilty and is being bullied by police, as some suggest?
The story you’ll read below is one no one wants to believe possible – that those hired to serve and protect us have put themselves and their egos above the truth.
That’s what happened to a father when his little girl went missing in 2004. The abduction of Kevin Fox’s daughter, 3-year-old Riley Fox, was very similar to what Lisa’s parents claim happened late last Monday night or early last Tuesday morning - that a stranger abducted their baby from their home in the middle of the night while the family slept.
Riley’s father, Kevin Fox, was wrongly accused and framed by police in the disappearance and murder of his little girl. After many long hours of grueling interrogation he finally cracked under pressure and gave a false confession – much like the case of Amanda Knox who was forced into hours and days of police interrogation and who finally said she remembered things that never happened.
Attorney Kathleen Zellner, who built a reputation for freeing the wrongly accused with DNA evidence, believed Kevin, who was later found to have been wrongly accused.
Below is the short version of little Riley Fox’s story. For the complete story read ABC’s 20/20 report: Who Killed Riley Fox?
Statement Analyst Peter Hyatt’s analysis of statements made by Riley’s father read: Kevin Fox “I Did Not Kill My Daughter.”
Peter has analyzed many statements made by Lisa’s parents over the past week-and-a-half and finds inconsistencies and deception. In Kevin’s case, he did not find deception.
In Holly Bobo’s case, a 20-year-old nursing student who went missing last April from outside her home in Tennessee, Peter analyzed statements made by her parents, and concluded, “It’s a small sample, but there is no indication of deception in the statements from either parents.”
On the morning of June 6, 2004, Riley’s dad, Kevin Fox, was home alone with his two children, Riley, 3, and Tyler, 6. His wife, and the children’s mom, Melissa Fox, was away that weekend for a walk to raise cancer awareness in Chicago. Kevin and Melissa were high school sweethearts and were happily married.
Just before 8 a.m. Tyler woke Kevin and told him Riley was gone. Kevin never thought, at that time, of the possibility she’d been kidnapped. He first thought she was maybe hiding somewhere in the house. After spending 40 minutes looking for her, and not finding her, he called police.
The evening prior he’d gone to a street festival in Chicago with one of Melissa’s brothers while his mother-in-law cared for Riley and Tyler. Kevin said he had a few beers at the festival, and that alcohol was not an issue that night.
He returned home after picking the children up around 1 a.m. Both children were asleep. He put Tyler on a chair in the living room and Riley on a couch, covering her with a yellow blanket. He went to bed and slept until Tyler woke him to tell him Riley was gone.
Riley’s body was found at 3:30 that afternoon by two female volunteers, face-down in a creek about two-and-a-half miles from the Fox home. The volunteer said she’d had a bad feeling about the place.
From the beginning the Foxes believed an intruder came into their house and kidnapped Riley. They cooperated in every way with police, providing statements, going through hours and hours of intense police interrogations, and providing DNA samples. They even allowed police to interview Tyler in hopes he could offer clues since he was sleeping next to Riley before she vanished.
Investigators canvassed the neighborhood and interviewed local sex offenders. Over time detectives grew more interested in Kevin, the last known person to see Riley.
While initially the family received much community support it wasn’t long before a TV report portrayed the parents as indifferent to the death of their little girl that rumors started to swirl, ABC 20/20 reports.
Kevin Fox soon became the focus of his daughter’s murder investigation.
Attorney Zellner agreed to take on Kevin’s case.
Zellner said the trauma of Riley’s daughter made Kevin vulnerable to what she calls psychological manipulation by interrogators.
Kevin said detectives showed him pictures of Riley’s dead body and would not let him speak with his father or an attorney. They took him into a very small room and interrogated him for 14 hours. Kevin said detectives told him they had reason to believe that he had killed Riley. “They broke me down mentally, physically, emotionally … but I stayed strong. I knew … I, I denied everything, everything that they would say to me,” he said.
Kevin agreed to taking a polygraph test, confident he’d pass. Afterwards, detectives told him he’d failed. Finally, Kevin broke, offering a statement admitting he killed Riley.
Investigators said Kevin told them he woke up in the middle of the night, went to the bathroom, accidentally hit Riley with the door, causing her to stumble and hit her head on the bathtub. He thought he’d accidentally killed her and panicked. They said he supposedly did something to make it look like she was sexually assaulted. Investigators said he put duct tape over Riley’s mouth, drove her in his car to the river, and walked down the side of a small bridge and dumped her into a river.
Hours after making that statement, Kevin Fox was charged with first degree murder.
The next day State Attorney Jeff Tomczak, who was dealing with pressure to solve the case and fighting for his political life, announced they would seek the death penalty. A Chicago Tribune reporter who covered Riley’s case said the decision to seek the death penalty is usually reached over weeks or months, not days. Tomczak denied his decision was motivated by the impending election, which he ultimately lost.
Kevin said his conviction was false and that after 14 hours in that room, it was his only way out.
Zellner said Kevin’s was a classic case of a false confession. She said the trauma of Riley’s disappearance made him vulnerable to what she calls “psychological manipulation” by interrogators. Kevin said detectives showed him pictures of Riley’s dead body and refused to let him speak with his father or a lawyer and made graphic threats. He was threatened he’d be in jail 30 years and raped every night. Watch the Kevin Fox Interrogation Reenactment.
Fred Hunter, who worked with Attorney Kathleen Zellner and local authorities, said, “It is pretty much polygraph 101 that you would not test a subject who had been interrogated for hours. The validity of any test results after that are going to be tainted.”
Statement Analyst Peter Hyatt notes that what happened in Kevin’s case is not the norm and should not be viewed as such. He said many investigators have taken Statement Analysis training and don’t need to berate someone into learning the truth.
Zellner had results from tests she’d ordered at the creek that proved a body dropped at that site could not have drifted to the location where Riley’s body was discovered.
Because Riley’s body was in water DNA samples were difficult to obtain. Zeller was aware of another type of testing called Y-STR testing that she believed could be right for this case. She convinced the prosecutor to send the samples to a respected lab in Virginia since there was none in Chicago.
Illinois State Crime Lab Report
The benefit of Y-STR testing is that though it may not be enough to fully identify a criminal, it is enough to eliminate a suspect with 100 percent certainty.
Bureaucracy held up the DNA samples and finally, on June 16, 2005, after eight months in jail, Kevin learned the results of the DNA tests – there was enough DNA and Kevin was excluded.
The State’s attorney held an immediate court hearing, released Kevin, who could have faced the death penalty, and dropped all the charges.
Zellner didn’t let it go. The Fox family sued the state claiming investigators didn’t only make mistakes, they were out to convict him from the beginning.
DNA was sent to the FBI because the state crime labs weren’t equipped. Once Kevin confessed the FBI said it was told to discontinue testing despite the “inconclusive” finding. Zellner said it was the one piece of evidence that could have disproved his confession and set him free.
FBI DNA Lab Report
Zellner argued that police deliberately ignored evidence suggesting an intruder was in the house, despite a back door that was standing open. “We know that’s how the intruder came in because the lock was broken,” she said. She said one of the windows was open from the inside, potential evidence of an intruder looking for an exit route. None of this was fingerprinted, nor the blanket used to cover Riley that night.
Outside of Riley’s murder, and her father being wrongly accused, was the fact that investigators interrogated 6-year-old Tyler Fox trying to get him to point the finger at his father. A video showed Tyler covering his head with his hoodie and becoming more and more upset as the interviewer questioned him about Kevin’s possible involvement in the crime. According to Zellner, she counted 168 times that he’s asked and he shook his head no.
“He’s trying to tell her he doesn’t know anything and she just won’t stop,” Zellner said of the interviewer. “I think what you see in that is just purely evil. They take this child who’s in this horrible situation and they are trying to manipulate him to help them frame his father. It is despicable.”
After five weeks of testimony a jury awarded Kevin Fox and his wife Melissa $15.5 million in their civil rights case against Will County.
The state appealed, and, in the end, the court upheld that police framed Kevin Fox in the rape-murder of his 3-year-old daughter, Riley Fox. The jury’s original award of $15.5 in damages had already been reduced to $12.2 million. The Foxes were ultimately awarded $8,166,000.
Another famliy wrongly accused
Denise Alves’ brother also went missing in the 80s. She said that 26 years ago Christopher Abeyta was taken from his crib when he was just seven months old. Christopher, like Michaela, has not been found.
Denise says her family was wrongly accused of having something to do with his disappearance.
Debbi prepares for arrest, baby’s aunt comes to her defense
On Tuesday Ashley Irwin told Good Morning America that Debbi is preparing to be arrested. Ashley said Debbi’s arrest is inevitable because “it’s what police do. They don’t have any leads, so they have to pin it on somebody.”
Kansas City Police Captain Steve Young told GMA, “It’s an absurd notion. We’re not offended by it because it’s so far from reality. We’re under pressure to find a child. We’re not under pressure to pin this on anybody or wrap it up and make an arrest.”
Ashley believes Debby and Jeremy are innocent. “Anybody who spends any time with them, you know it’s not true. She’s genuine – she loves that child. It’s her baby, she would never do anything to hurt her.”
Baby Lisa Irwin missing, police contact, and links
The parents of missing Missouri baby, 10-month-old Lisa Irwin, Jeremy Irwin and Deborah “Debbi” Bradley, say she was abducted sometime between 10:30 p.m. October 3 and 4 a.m. October 4, 2011.
Lisa is described as a 30-inch tall, blonde hair, blue eyed baby girl with two front teeth who isn’t yet walking. She was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with kittens on it. She has a beauty mark on her right outer thigh.
Police ask anyone who has information about baby Lisa’s disappearance to contact them immediately at 816-474-TIPS.
Articles written by this National Missing Persons news writer are provided below, followed by a list of video links and other news stories in Lisa’s case.
