Ludington Police: I've Got a Secret About Baby Kate

[XLFD]

As most of you know, four month old Katherine Phillips, Baby Kate went missing in June of 2011 from her Ludington apartment allegedly taken by her father, Sean Phillips and deposited somewhere.  The investigating authorities believe her dad killed her and disposed of her body.  Beyond a prison 'confession letter' allegedly scribed by Phillips after a trial where he was found guilty and sentenced to 10-15 years for the crime of 'unlawful imprisonment', there is no compelling evidence that indicates this was what happened.  Two years to the day after she went missing, a search by law enforcement and plant scientists for plants found on one pair of Phillips' shoes that were not likely worn when his whereabouts were not known was conducted.

 

On September 10, 2013, over seventy days later, the first bit of 'news' about Baby Kate since the two day 'plant search' in northern Mason County came forth in a piece from Interlochen Public Radio:

 

"Police in Ludington have narrowed the search for the remains of Baby Kate. Katherine Phillips was last seen with her father, Sean Phillips, in June 2011.

After volunteer assistance this summer, the search area has now been confined to less than one square mile. Volunteers searched for a rare mix of plants that had been found in the soil caked into the bottom of Sean Phillips’ shoes.

The lead detective in the case hopes plant evidence will continue to narrow the search area for police. Samples were again sent to a laboratory at Michigan State University as late as last week. This time the focus is on a rare algae."

One would think that a search area narrowed down to one square mile would have the searchers call in the cadaver dogs, who can sometimes track bodies after many months and a few searchers to find the body they believe is there, but this hasn't even been officially contemplated to the public's knowledge.  The levels of secrecy by investigators in this case and the levels of incompetency by those investigators when the public manages to get through the veils of secrecy, has been astounding, and well-documented. 

 

Here, we have the lead investigator, J.B. ("H.G.") Wells, making an imperious claim of a major breakthrough in the case, that if true, should allow the family of Baby Kate some closure.  He even indicates further plant samples have been sent since the original search in order to further narrow it down.  I indicated the plant search was fruitless, so to speak, in this thread in July.  I stand by that claim even stronger now than then.  Even more so after making the following FOIA request to the Ludington Police Department:

 

 

Notice that beyond the request for records, I asked for clarifications about the 'search'.  It is not clear from what Wells said in the article whether our search is for plants or for Baby Kate.  As for almost everything in this case, even after a trial and 27 months of 'investigating', the access given to the public has been thoroughly squelched, and always by skirting the public records laws of our State.  Here's the FOIA Response in part:

As is normal, the Ludington Police Department says that disclosure of this research would interfere with law enforcement proceedings, deprive a person of the right to a fair trial, disclose confidential information or confidential sources, and/or constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (this from the agency that points their bathroom cameras at your stall and urinals). 

 

But unlike the law and court precedents of the State's FOIA laws, they do not exactly tell you why this research would do any of these, and it all seems kid of ridiculous.  A lot of public resources were used to do this search and yet they wish to have no public accountability.  It is a broken record that has been played too often, much to the chagrin of the people who actually wish to find the location of Baby Kate and solve the overall mysteries of what actually happened.

 

 

The conclusion is that Detective J.B. "H.G." Wells has crafted some science fiction worthy of his name.  There is nothing substantive enough in his research to declare that Baby Kate's body is within a one square mile area, any more than his investigation into the death of Lingyan Zou could logically declare that her death was by suicide.    

 

 

Until this 'unlawful imprisonment' of public records ends concerning this case, we may have to hold our local law enforcement agencies as accomplices to keeping the whereabouts of Baby Kate unknown.  Their inability to follow protocol and the law by having 'secret confinement' of critical data and research may have already jeopardized the public's ability to ever get to the bottom of what happened.