Page 69 of Lost Lake
“No worries,” Mina said. “We appreciate your willingness to come in person to update us. There are sandwiches on the table if you’d like one.”
“Thank you, but I plan to have lunch during an update meeting with my staff.” Sierra sat next to Mina’s assistant and set her items on the table.
Mina stood and introduced everyone. “Sierra still has a big job ahead of her so we’ll start with her update.”
“Oh, thanks.” She took a long pull on her coffee then passed a report down the table. “This investigation has an unusually large number of evidence pieces, and it’s growing. So I’ve created a list of the items we’re processing.”
Mina glanced at the report, then looked up. “This is most helpful, thank you.”
Sierra gave a sharp nod. “In an effort to save time, I’ll power through this list and review the evidence by the crime scene where we located it. If you have any questions, please stop me.”
“Don’t worry.” Jude picked up a sandwich thickly stuffed with roast beef. “I don’t think anyone in this room is too shy to interrupt.”
She chuckled. “I know you’re all dying to get the information from Kenna’s phone so I’ll begin there. The good news is our electronics expert is confident he can retrieve the data. Bad news, the phone has to dry out. Could take seventy-two hours or so before he can access it.”
“You’re right,” Mina said. “We do want that information, like yesterday. What about fingerprints or DNA on the phone?”
“We only recovered one person’s fingerprints. Kenna’s.”
“How do you know they’re hers?” Deputy Massey asked.
“All daycare workers in a licensed facility in Oregon are required to be printed. We also recovered DNA from the phone, but it would only be an assumption to say it’s hers.” She picked up her coffee cup again and drank as if her life depended on it.
She cleared her throat. “Now to other DNA. Most of the samples we recovered will complete at around four o’clock today. That would be for items where the samples were easy to extract DNA. For samples where it’s more difficult to extract, we’ll have results tomorrow at the soonest.”
Deputy Ewing groaned.
“Hey, don’t knock it,” Ulrich said. “It’d take the state lab weeks to finish, and we all should be thankful for Sierra taking on our investigation.”
Red crept up Sierra’s neck. “No thanks needed. Fortunately, we have Lucy’s DNA from her ID kit for comparison. Any sample with a Mitochondrial DNA match to Lucy would mean the sample very likely belongs to Kenna. We’re also testing the adult toothbrush from Kenna’s suitcase found in her van.”
She picked up a copy of the report she’d handed out. “On to fingerprints. In addition to Kenna’s from the daycare, we have Lucy’s, thanks to her ID kit.”
Gabe put down his turkey sandwich and leaned forward. “Were you able to match any to them yet?”
“Yes, several. The only prints on the unicorn and bracelet belonged to Lucy. The shoes held prints from three people. Lucy, Kenna, and unidentified, i.e., not in the databases. The car seat had four unique prints for Lucy, Kenna, unidentified again, and the third one matched your prints, Gabe.”
“That makes sense. I’ve moved her seat plenty of times and as a former state trooper, my prints are in the system.
Sierra nodded. “We’ve also recovered DNA for these items along with the pink sweatshirt found in the car seat. Processingwill complete today for all of them. None of the blood evidence will be ready until tomorrow. In the meantime, we ran blood types so we can compare to Lucy’s ID kit. For reference, Lucy is type O. The blood on the car seat is type A.”
Jude dropped his bag of potato chips on the table and brushed off his fingers. “If I remember my high school biology, type A blood is compatible with type O and the blood could belong to Kenna, as it means Kenna could be Lucy’s mother.”
“Correct,” Sierra said. “All depends on the father’s blood type. Blood found on Kenna’s shirt and hand was type B, likely her killer’s.”
“But not Lucy’s father,” Jude said. “Parents with types B and O could not have a child with type O unless the father carried an O gene as well.”
“Correct again.” Sierra smiled at Jude.
He leaned back and preened. “All in all, the typing is something to go on now, but we still have to wait for the DNA for any certainty.”
“That’s right, but it might give the investigation a headstart,” Sierra said. “Next, the footprints cast on the beach. The small footprint matched the brand for the recovered child’s shoe, but the soles didn’t have a distinctive wear impression and could belong to another child with the same brand of shoes. The larger footprints are a men’s size eleven athletic shoe. Our staff is searching national shoe databases to find a match to the sole to try to identify the shoe’s brand and model.”
“But it won’t help if you don’t have a suspect to match it to, right?” Massey asked.
She smiled at the young deputy. “Very important point to keep in mind. We also lifted fingerprints and DNA from the boat cushion—uncommon underwater, but conditions helped. DNA results will take longer.”
She paused for a moment as if expecting more questions, then continued. “The dock is public, and we recovered an overabundance of fingerprints. We had to prioritize resources and delay the dock prints, but a dedicated tech will be assigned to them tomorrow.”
