En Espanol
Monday, May 23, 2011
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC --
This morning a volunteer search team will start a strategic examination of a portion of the old Navy Base, looking for the remains of Brandy Hanna.
According to emails sent to qualified forensic searchers Friday, and obtained by News 2, "at this point there isn't any question that she is dead".
Hanna was last seen May 20th, 2005 at her home on Florida Avenue in North Charleston.
Since then the search for Hanna has yielded very little, until very recently.
In a string of emails from Dr. Jon Leader - head of the Office of the State Archaeologist - to searchers, he indicates a shoe was found on the Old Navy Base.
Leader also tells potential volunteers, "this is a homicide and it’s the chain of evidence that will undoubtedly be the deciding factor."
Hanna's family held a vigil Friday night to commemorate the sixth anniversary of her disappearance.
"If it is Brandy that would be a good thing, and it would end our nightmare," said Donna Parent, Brandy's mother.
She says in February a detective called her and asked if it would be okay if he re-opened her case.
"He has been a God-send," says Parent, "he's re-interviewed people and really put his heart and soul into finding her."
His investigative work led to the shoe in a secured area of the Old Navy base.
Parent says the shoe is an exact match to what Brandy wore around May 20, 2005, when she disappeared. Police cannot confirm through physical tests.
Friday night's vigil was at Alex's Restaurant on Dorchester Avenue in North Charleston. Parent is the manager there and Brandy worked as a server there for several months before her disappearance.
The North Charleston Police Department issued this statement:
The North Charleston Police Department is committed to pursuing any information as it pertains to investigations that have not been resolved through arrests or other means. There are numerous cases that detectives are assigned to review and investigate and one of these cases is the Brandy Hanna missing person case. Following investigative information in the search for Brandy Hanna, detectives began searching the area of the old Navy Base and located an item, a sneaker, that interested detectives. Recently, detectives and the State Archaeologist, Jonathan Leader, Ph. D., searched the area with scientific instruments.
Next week, the archaeologist and team of volunteers will travel to North Charleston to conduct a more thorough search of the area, which is within a secure location of the old Navy base.
The search is based on investigative information and there is no physical evidence confirming that it is Brandy Hanna’s shoe that was found.
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