Probe continues in case of Edmonton woman who disappeared en route to work
LISA ARROWSMITH
July 14, 2005
EDMONTON (CP) - They say they're getting lots of tips, but Edmonton police still don't know what happened to a woman who mysteriously disappeared on her way to work.
Liana White, 29, has been missing since Tuesday morning, when she failed to arrive at her downtown hospital job. Police have found no evidence of foul play and are still treating the case as a missing person, acting Insp. Jamie Ewatski told reporters Thursday.
White's SUV was found abandoned in a parking lot not far from her suburban north Edmonton home, but all her belongings, including bank and credit cards, have apparently been accounted for, Ewatski said.
There have been conflicting reports from witnesses about when White's vehicle was first spotted, and Ewatski said police were working to sort them out.
White's husband, Michael, has said he last saw Liana at 6:15 a.m., but a woman who reported the abandoned SUV said she saw it before 6 a.m.
"We are in the process of validating that, and I'm sure that we will have a better timeline because we've had a lot of tips," Ewatski said.
"In fact, I can say that one tip came forward that that vehicle had been there the night prior. Well, then we had a report of the next morning. So through the investigation we will tighten that timeline."
White is four months pregnant with her second child, and that fact has prompted some comparisons to the sensational case of Laci Peterson, a pregnant California woman murdered by her husband.
"There are a lot of comparisons because people watch television and people get influenced by what they see on television and think sometimes, well, that happens everywhere," Ewatski said.
Police are not treating Michael White as a suspect in anything, he said, and the case shouldn't cause city residents undue fear.
"Edmonton is a very safe city," he said. "I police that area, and it does have random acts of violence; there's no doubt about that. Every community in the city does, whether it's break and enters or stolen cars, theft from autos, assaults or stabbings."
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