Police bring week-long search to end

By Bill Byrd
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT September 29, 2008 11:26 pm

— Two “items of interest” but no human remains were found by Fairmont police during a nearly week-long search of a patch of roadside land in Montana Mines, police said.
The hunt for human remains is believed to be linked to a missing person case, but police, as they have throughout, are staying close-mouthed. Starting last Tuesday and ending Sunday, the search covered nearly an acre of brush next to Montana Road.
Although they did not find any human bones, that’s not a setback for investigators, Chief Mark Hayes said at a Monday press conference.
Checking all credible tips — and the anonymous tip police received last week that prompted the search is still considered a good one, he said — is part of a thorough investigation, Hayes said.
“We gave it our best shot. We’re not discouraged,” he said. “We can take this and build on it” using the results to check other tips that may come in as well as a check on past work.
Sgt. Matt Pigott, the lead detective on the case, said police have two missing person cases: Faith Ann Willis, 21, of Barrackville, who was last seen on the night of Aug. 6, 2005; and that of a man named Spencer Berry. Berry went missing in 1986, Pigott said.
Pigott declined again to say whether the latest search in Montana Mines was for the remains of Willis or Berry. Within months of Willis’ disappearance, police did several searches in the Montana Mines area in connection with her case.
Several of Willis’ relatives stood vigil while detectives cleared the brush and scraped open the earth with small, “bobcat-excavators.” As they do in every major case, police have kept the family informed over the years, Pigott said.
“We did find some ‘items of interest’ that we’re going to send to the West Virginia State Police crime lab for processing,” he said.
He declined to say what was found or on which day it was discovered. The crime lab experts will decide whether the items can be analyzed and, if so, whether they can do the analysis or whether another lab is better equipped to do so, Pigott said.
The decision to clear the ground was based on “hits” or indications of human remains at the site. The hits came from cadaver dogs. The Barbour County Search & Rescue Team and the WV K-9 Search & Rescue Inc. unit donated their dogs and handlers for the search.
Pigott also thanked residents of the hilltop community for supplying the searchers with food and drink.
Also helping were: Richard Helms, Mike Fortney, Mike Chisler and Richard Sypolt of Chisler Inc., Patty and Al Kincaid of Kincaid Construction, MPE Rentals, the U.S. attorney’s office (for liaison with the FBI and the federal Homeland Security department), the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and the county prosecutor’s office, and the State Police.
E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.

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