If the police thought MC was alive and they knew where she was could they not enter the house under Exigent Circumstance?
Exigent Circumstances: This exception refers to emergency situations where the process of getting a valid search warrant could compromise public safety or could lead to a loss of evidence. This encompasses instances of "hot pursuit" in which a suspect is about to escape. A recent California Supreme Court decision ruled that police may enter a DUI suspect's home without a warrant on the basis of the theory that important evidence, namely the suspect's blood alcohol level, may be lost otherwise. (legalzoom.com)
I am not a lawyer and I know legal zoom might be stretching it, but it makes sense.
If they thought she was still alive and did nothing that could open up a lawsuit. Police makes mistakes like this and settle out of court all of the time.
Washington law regarding exigent circumstances is different than CA. Div. III of the Court of Appeals for WA recently published an opinion in a DUI very similar to the CA case. The WA court ruled the opposite of what CA did. See, State v. Roger Hinshaw.
Moreover, before the exigent circumstances exception can be applied, police must still possess probable cause. And my whole point here, if you recall, is that I believe police did in fact possess probable cause that the Spec house contained
evidence of a crime (i.e., MC's murder). So, LE got a search warrant for the house before they searched it initially.
And, no, LE could not enter the Spec house to look for MC (who was merely missing at that time) under the exigent circumstances exception.
LE's best shot would be under the community caretaking exception. But that exception applies only if the purpose of entering the house is totally divorced from any criminal investigation. Plus, LE must point to specific facts from which one could reasonably infer that MC was currently inside the Spec house, AND that MC was in imminent danger of serious harm. Even assuming LE had some information that MC may have been at the Spec house sometime earlier that day or the day before, this is still not enough.
I don't believe for one second that Judge Smalley or Judge Bridges would ever uphold such a warrantless entry and search.