I think you misread the original sentence:BBM This bolded statement is quite curious to me. Why were troopers looking for this family? Where had they been? Were they reported missing prior to the murder?
"An investigator told the Times-News that troopers were looking into the whereabouts of Byler and her family 24 hours before her body was discovered or in the recent past."
IMO, the troopers have been looking (were looking and still are looking) into where the victim and her family members were during the 24 before she was killed (and also where they had been in the recent past).
Not that 24 hours before she was killed, troopers were looking for the family.
A syntax thing. Hope I explained my point of view understandably, English is not my first language. The poor choice of "troopers were looking" can give a wrong impression, imo the interviewer just writes in past tense because they spoke a while ago (well, at least before anyone reads that), and when they spoke, then the investigator told that they are looking. But at the time of the article, that's in the past. But now it can look like they "were looking 24 hours before" - I don't think that's the case here.