Press Conference
18th Oct.
Chief - A short time ago, we began what will be an extensive search of the Waste Management Landfill located here in Chatham County. As with every step we have taken in this case the need for this search was based on where the evidence led us. We have spent the last several days preparing and deploying extensive resources to support the search team and the investigators and I would like to thank, for a moment, Chatham County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff John Wilcher, Chatham County Emergency Management Agency, Savannah Police Department, Savannah Fire Department, Chatham Emergency Services and many other agencies that have assisted in getting us prepared to begin our search of the landfill.
We know that this is going to be a physically, mentally and emotionally gruelling task for our investigators and team. Yesterday, our team posted this picture of Quinton, here on the wall of this operation centre as a reminder of who we are searching for and why we continue to work so terribly hard.
We want justice for Quinton, just like everybody else, and we want to find his remains so we can give him a proper resting place. Once again, we are indebted to the FBI for their unmatched expertise that they have provided to us since they arrived on scene less than three hours after Quinton was reported missing. Now I'll turn it over to Senior Supervisory Resident Agent, Mr Clarke, who also has a few remarks.
FBI - Good morning, everyone. My name is Will Clarke, as the Chief said I'm the Senior Supervisory Resident Agent of the Savannah and Brunswick offices of the FBI. Throughout our process here, our goal has been to bring Quinton home and to hold anyone responsible for his disappearance accountable. We, along with our law enforcement partners, go into this process with heavy hearts. We did not want to end up at this point, but the evidence has taken us here. We're not just randomly searching this landfill. We have evidence, specific evidence, that leads us to this large property. To help in this search, the FBI has brought in specialists from Quantico, Atlanta, as well as all of our personnel here in the greater Savannah area. The FBI's Evidence Response team, which has experience in landfill searches, like this, is heading up part of this operation. At this moment, we have dozens of FBI personnel on scene in support of the Chatham County Police Department. We will have Chatham County and FBI personnel in the landfill, each day, conducting a systematic search of the debris. This will be a complex and strenuous effort. Searchers will move through the debris placed on the search deck looking for evidence. Once that debris is cleared it will be placed on the search deck and then removed and then replaced with another section of material. This will not be quick. It will not be easy and the outcome is uncertain. As the chief said, we want justice for Quinton and we want to find him a proper resting place. Again, we share the sorrow felt by millions and promise all of our available resources and expertise to assist Chatham County in finding little Quinton.
Chief - Thank you Will. Now we'll take a few questions if you'd like.
Reporter - What makes you think that Quinton is in this landfill?
Chief - The evidence has led us to this place at this date and time.
Reporter - Is there anything specific you can tell us?
Chief - Nothing I can tell you specifically.
Reporter - Chief, what date did you think you would come to this landfill? Is this something you knew last Thursday, last Wednesday, last Tuesday or yesterday or this morning?
FBI - We've been reviewing the evidence throughout the duration of this investigation. We've been following the evidence where it has taken us. And the evidence has taken us to this landfill. The efforts to undertake this landfill search have been several days in the planning. We've brought in experts in landfill searches to guide us to this specific area where we'll be searching. Like I said, in my comments before, this is not... we're not searching the whole landfill, we have a specific area where we are looking.
Reporter - I know the recovery and the evidence team has done this before. Is this the area that now you've gridded off, with no more trash coming there? It is away from anything new that would be coming in?
FBI - Yes.
Reporter - And is this because of where this trash specifically came from?
FBI - Yes.
Reporter - We talked to you 2:30 the Wednesday that he went missing - You were so hopeful in this and your tone has changed. You almost sound like you're about to choke up there. You must be emotionally drained. As investigators, as agents can you talk about how hard this case has been?
Chief - Yeah. You're trying to get me to cry, I think, but, it has. You know, we had a meeting yesterday and to look across the the multitude of people that are here and to feel and see their emotions... but that's coupled with determination and dedication, so we can find little Quinton and provide him a proper resting place. It does take its toll. There is a lot of time, energy and effort that goes into, not only the investigation but the logistics in terms of getting everything we need to be able to provide the proper resources for the search teams and the investigators, so we can reach a conclusion at some point. There's a large order of magnitude that has been brought to bear here for this and I'll say it again, I can't thank the FBI enough for all that they have done. They have been tremendous and phenomenal.
Reporter - And you know this is obviously a criminal investigation now. It was a missing person's... and there's no way that it's not, right? No-one's been charged?
Chief - No-one has been charged.
Reporter - Why has no-one been charged?
Chief - Because we're not ready to charge anyone yet. We still have work to do. We still have an investigation to do and we are not going to do anything, pre-emptively, that would that would harm future prosecution, that would, where I'm standing before you six months from now, talking about a flawed investigation or talking about why we did this and why we didn't do that. I believe in our investigators. I believe in the expertise that we brought to bear here. We are tracking in the right direction, but we're only going to do that when we're ready to do that.
Reporter - Chief, is that because you're holding out to make this a capital punishment case?
Chief - No.
Reporter - Chief, is this landfill the only place that y'all are going to be searching?
Chief - Yes.
Reporter - You mentioned of course that this is going to be a large scale and really strenuous operation. Do you guys have any kind of vague idea how long you think it would take, or is that kind of up to what happens out there?
Chief - It's kind of up to what happens but, as Agent Clark said, this is not going to be quick. This is not going to happen within a day or so. We are here for the long haul, until we determine that we don't need to be here anymore.
Reporter - Chief, let's back up a little bit in this investigation. One thing that never happened - was, there was never an Amber Alert sent out. There was never a Levi's call sent out. Why was that?
Chief - It didn't meet the criteria of an Amber Alert, at that time.
Reporter - Why so?
Chief - I'd have to go back and look at the exact criteria, but we didn't have any specific information about an abduction. We didn't have a suspect for an abduction. We didn't have a vehicle description or anything like that. And Amber Alerts are very prescriptive in terms of when you can issue them, and we didn't have that information at that time.
Reporter - Chief, how tough is it to stand here right now (
inaudible) somebody threw that little baby in the trash?
Chief - It's.. it's, it's tough. But, you know, we understand that, you know, it's necessary. This is the work that we do. You know, all be it emotionally draining, all be it tough, aIl be it difficult. But this is what the community asks of our law enforcement officers.
Reporter - I want to clarify something chief. It was asked in the question earlier. Do y'all believe that Quinton was brought here and thrown in the landfill or thrown in the trash and then ended up at the landfill?
Chief - We believe that he was placed in a specific dumpster at a specific location and it was brought here by regular means of disposal.
Reporter - Got it. (
inaudible) dumpster I-95?
Chief - I can't answer that.
Reporter - Is Leilani Simon still the only suspect?
Chief - She is.
Reporter - You mentioned the other day that you didn't believe she was a flight risk - Has that changed?
Chief - That has not changed.
Reporter - How hopeful are you that you'll find Quinton's body?
Chief - I have every belief that we will find his remains here at the landfill.
Reporter - Do y'all know where Leilani is today? I don't mean right at this actual moment but do ya'll know where she is?
Chief - I believe she's still here in Chatham County. We do not believe she's a flight risk.
Reporter - And again, I'll ask one more time - What makes you believe that she's not a flight risk.
Chief - I can't get into that.
Okay, thank you, y'all have a great day.
