Okay folks, here's the press conference, q+a almost done, too.
Uncle of missing Logan 5-year-old charged with aggravated murder, child kidnapping
"So, I think you all understand, it’s day five of our attempt to find Lizzy, and with that comes some progress as it relates to our case that we’re building. So today at 10:45, in conjunction with Logan City police department, the Cache County attorney’s office filed criminal charges, against alexander Whipple, to include; one count of aggravated murder, child kidnapping, two counts of obstruction of justice, and desecration of a body.
96 hours in, since Lizzy went missing. As you can find, from the probable cause statement that has been issued at the CCJ, there's a number of items that went into the decision to file charges, not the least of which, include; again, this distant time that we’re dealing with.
A knife with blood, this knife is broken, it is the brand of knife that’s from the home and there is a knife missing from the family's’ knife block. We have evidence, a PVC pipe that has red substance and a partial palm print in the red substance matching Alex. There was a teal skirt with white lace, that was hastily buried, that had blood matching, and this particular piece of clothing matches the description of Lizzy’s skirt. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can, DNA positive to Alex.
More personal to Alex, his wristwatch and his sweatshirt contain blood that is DNA positive to match Lizzy’s blood. The palm print on the pipe, in the red substance, the palm print is positive for Alex’s palm.
Please realize that today’s filing is a significant step in a process. We’re still working very hard in our attempt to find Lizzy. We have roughly 20 officers on today, combing through a mountain of garbage just on the off chance there may be a possibility that we can find Lizzy in that mess. It's a very hard job and arduous task, those men and women down there are doing the best that they can to make sure we have not missed an opportunity to bring Lizzy home.
Another several tips have come in , i think substantial efforts, we felt like there was product on Alex's clothes consistent of mulch. We’ve been through every pile of mulch, even emptying mulch trucks that were headed to Arizona. We’ve gone to every link to exhaust the numerous tips that have come in. So as you can appreciate, our concerns, our Hearts, our prayers, goes out to Jessica and her family and friends as they are made aware of this information. This information can be easy for the family, even though We haven't found Lizzy, to hear the charge of aggravated murder brings with it a notion of finality, very difficult for the family, I can't imagine. Our hearts go out to them. At this point, the family is trying to deal with this information. Joe parker is the family’s spokesperson, who will be in touch with you folks, and at some point will issue a statement. I'll be honest with ya, I want to stick to the probable cause statement, I think it’s well prepared I think there is a great amount of detail but it also is detail that is specific to the charges and the elements of crimes.
So if I may, one of the things I worried about, the very nature of the name of the charge that was given out is ‘desecration of a body’. Now one’s going to ask themselves, ‘what does that mean?’. So if I might just go to -- it’s uh, line 38 of the probable cause statement, let me just read this for you, because I think it’s important that we just discuss what that means. “It is believed that probable cause exists for one count of desecration of body because ES’s body has not been recovered and Alex has taken substantial steps to move, remove, of conceal ES’s body.” Now that is language right out of the code, and once again, is part of a process, the county attorney is looking at what we call ‘the elements of the crime’ and the elements of the crime are being met based on our belief that he moved, removed or concealed her body. And I just know the name of the, ‘desecration of a body’, is gonna cause questions. It’s all about element of the crime and it’s all about how the county attorney feels that those elements have been met.
So once again, I’d like to stick to the script, I appreciate you guys probably don’t have that in front of you, I do, but as you ask questions, I may be referring back to this document."
