By David Lohr
(Continued)
On Tuesday, Bethany Police Chief Neal Troutman told ABC News that his department was in contact with Eric Phan, the man Lauren was supposed to meet Friday night. Troutman confirmed reports that they were considering Phan a "person of interest" in the case, but declined to elaborate further.
"We're talking to him on a daily basis," Troutman said. "He hasn't taken off yet."
On Wednesday morning, more than 300 volunteers, along with police helicopters, ATV'S and K9 units, searched Lake Overholser and the Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, police found nothing of significance to the case during either search.
"We're not getting any calls. I felt like it was time to search and get some personnel out here," Troutman told NewsOK.com, adding, "We'll now get back to the investigative side of it."
Just hours after the searches came to an end, police announced that they had secured a warrant for Phan's arrest on charges of first-degree murder, despite the fact that they have not found Lauren's body. Investigators, however, were unable to locate Phan to take him into custody.
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| Eric Phan |
"[Phan] has always been a person of interest to us, and we went through an elimination process, trying to eliminate those we felt weren't involved in this case," Troutman said during a news conference yesterday evening. "As it turned out, with all the information that we've come up with, we felt very strong about Mr. Phan being a suspect in this; however we could not locate a body, nor could we locate him, so we didn't have a body or a confession or any information that would lead us to believe he was guilty; however, we've obtained it now, and I think, probably, just through the help of the media and the word of mouth and the pressure on him, I think, probably, just built up and he may feel he's guilty of something, so, therefore, he has made himself very evasive."
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