Transcript of Austin Police Department press conference Dec. 17, 2019:
(Note: I don't know the identity of the reporters who asked questions, or whether some reporters asked more than one question. I simply labelled them sequentially.)
Det. Herries: Good afternoon. My name is Brad Herries. B-R-A-D H-E-R-R-I-E-S. I'm a detective with the Austin Police Department Violent Crimes Unit. Today I want to provide a update on the current state of our search for Heidi Broussard and Margot Carey. I'll reiterate their, their descriptions. Heidi is a 33 year old white female. She stands 5 foot 3, 150 pounds. She has dark hair with highlights in it, and Margot is now a 3 week old child. Her last doctor's appointment she was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 22 inches long. Heidi and Margot were last seen on Thursday, December 12th here in Austin Texas. It's believed that Heidi and Margot's last known location was at their apartment complex in the area of William Cannon and South First, and we believe them to be there sometime the morning of that Thursday December 12th. Heidi and Margot were reported missing to us the Austin Police Department at approximately 7:30 that night on Thursday. Patrol went to the scene, conducted an initial investigation, and contacted detectives with the Austin Police Department. Since that moment we've been working this case continually. We have asked for the help of the FBI. The FBI is sending in the CARD team, that's the child abduction response deployment team here to Austin to assist with this investigation and with this search for Heidi and for Margot. Throughout this investigation we've had the assistance of a number of units both locally, statewide, and nationally, including Austin Police Department missing persons unit, the Austin Police Department Special Investigations Unit, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rangers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Travis County Search and Rescue team, as well as the Texas Parks and Wildlife. Those units have continued to support us and continue to support us as we move on with this investigation in our search for Heidi and Margot. I want to thank the community for tips that we've received in this case. We’ve received numerous tips from all different mediums and all different sources. We ask that those tips that are made be reported to the Austin Police Department. We've seen a lot of tips that are posted online and with those tips, we may not find them we're aware of a lot of a lot of Facebook pages a lot of online channels where people are posting comments that may be relevant to our investigation. We ask that you also share those with the Austin Police Department. Our resources, we’re we're doing our best to keep up with the number of posts, the number of tips that are being posted online but we ask that you contact us the Austin Police Department at area code 512-974-5250 with any tips. If you see Heidi or Margot please contact the Austin Police Department or your local law enforcement agency if you see them out and about. We continue to search, we've been working continually since Thursday night to try and find Heidi and Margot.
Reporter1: Detective, can we ask some questions here, given where you are right now with the investigation is Shane Carey a person of interest?
Det. Herries: So we have an ongoing current investigation and I'm not ready to get into anyone that we have as a person of interest, to be perfectly honest with you, this case is unique in that we don't have a person of interest right now. We're exploring every avenue that we have and every possibility, and to be perfectly honest, anything is possible at this point. We're working down every angle to try and exclude possibilities and narrow that down to locate Margot and Heidi, and that's why we need the public's help, and if you see Margot or Heidi or have any information about their whereabouts please contact the Austin Police Department.
Reporter2: …<unintelligible> … that Heidi left on her own?
Det. Herries: It's possible that the Heidi and Margot have left on their own accord. It's also possible that there may be something nefarious or foul play involved, and to be honest, we don't know the answer to that question, and that's what we're continuing to work on as we speak right now.
Reporter3: The possiblity that Heidi could have left on her own is why the child abduction response <unintelligible>
Det. Herries: The introduction of the FBI to the investigation is to help us, and the acronyms and and titles that they use for specialized units are not an implication of the direction or, or thoughts of this investigation. We're asking for any help that we can get and the FBI is being very gracious and helping us out with with that specialized unit.
Reporter4: You named several agencies that are helping you with the search effort, but there hasn’t been visible boots on the ground that we’ve been able to see. Is there a certain area that you guys are looking into? Is there not an area? I guess, where are those boots on the ground efforts to find her happening?
Det. Herries: So ever since Thursday night there have been officers on scene at their last known locations, at areas that would make sense for them to have been out doing video canvasses, knocking on doors, talking to neighbors, and doing anything we can do to try and find the current state, current position, or current location of Heidi and Margot.
Reporter5: Can you tell us what <unintelligible> when she got back to her apartment where she was last seen?
Det. Herries: So it was released earlier on she was dropping a child off at a school here in Austin and then returns to the apartment and that's where our our investigation begins is at the time she returned to the apartment.
Reporter6: It's been it's been five days now, are you any closer to finding out what happened to her or finding the location? And what if anything have you been able to do to push the needle forward, have you recovered any new video that may be out there?
Det. Herries: So we haven't released and to be honest with you it's an ongoing investigation we will not release all the information on what we're doing right now but I can assure you that continual investigations whether that be video canvass, speaking to neighbors, family, friends, co-workers, past co-workers, anything along those lines as well as forensic searches of their digital footprint and any electronic devices are all being continually evaluated and investigated by us.
Reporter7: What can you share about any previous calls or disturbances at Heidi's apartment?
Det. Herries: So the previous calls investigations those are something I would defer, but those are part of the ongoing investigations.
Reporter8: You say that there you're still searching for her, you still assume that she is alive at this point like but the baby as well?
Det. Herries: At this time we have no reason to believe that Marty, that Margot nor Heidi are harmed. We are still looking for them in a in a search and recovery manner with them being alive. Our assumption is that they're alive and the sooner that we can find them, the better, that's why again we asked for the community's assistance, for the public's assistance, and if you see either of them, or have any information related to Margot or Heidi and their whereabouts or the circumstances surrounding their past five days, we ask that you contact the Austin Police Department.
Reporter9: Can you please confirm whether there have, or have not, actually been any domestic instances, incidents reported at that address?
Det. Herries: I’d uh I can't go into the details of that, that's part of the ongoing investigation.
Reporter10: Are you reaching out to or trying to work with any out of state law enforcement agencies <unintelligible> across state lines <unintelligible> looking into that she possibly went back home to Louisiana in the middle of this?
Det. Herries: So our partners with the Department of Public Safety are helping out associating, helping out reach out to those other states and those other law enforcement agencies to conduct those investigations that are, frankly, outside of our jurisdiction, and we are continuing to work on those angles.
Reporter11: There are a lot of questions about why there was not an Amber Alert issued when she went missing and when Margot went missing asked on our website.
Det. Herries: So an Amber Alert carries with it a very specific set of circumstances and the circumstances surrounding this offense, this this call for service, don't don't match that Amber Alert. I'll defer you to DPS for their their criteria specifically for the Amber Alert. I can tell you that it didn't match that.
Reporter12: Detective, you mentioned the fact that you had moved up the time now from 7:50 in the morning at the school to some time in the morning that the mother and child were seen at their apartment complex. Was that due to surveillance video that was on scene then?
Det. Herries: So that's just part of our ongoing investigation. We have reason to believe that both of them were back at the apartment complex after being at the school.
Reporter13: There had been some suggestion that her keys and her purse were found either in her car or in the apartment. Where were her items of personal property found?
Det. Herries: So that's part of the scene that we're processing and continuing the process as we speak and those questions I'm gonna, I’m gonna say are part of the ongoing investigation…
Reporter14: Have you been able to nail down about where Shane was on Thursday throughout the day, and at what point he got home, and all of that?
Det. Herries: The timeline of all people surrounding Heidi and Margot, whether it be family members and friends, are things that that we've been investigating and speaking to them about, and that's part of the ongoing investigation into this case.
APD Spokesperson: Thank you.
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