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Area authorities have looked to the West Coast and many places in between in their search for whoever killed Kristin and Kati Lisk.
"We've had calls from California," said Maj. Howard Smith of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office.
Anything that may be related to the slaying of the Spotsylvania sisters is being checked out, but authorities still have no solid suspects, Smith said.
Kristin, 15, and Kati, 12, disappeared from their rural county home on May 1. Their bodies were found in the South Anna River in Hanover County five days later.
A source close to the investigation told The Free LanceöStar today that he had been told that the medical examiner has determined that the girls died as the result of asphyxiation. That has been the widely speculated cause of death for weeks. But no official source would confirm that, and police said they don't yet know the specific manner of death.
A few weeks ago, an area FBI agent traveled to Lonoke County, Ark., to question a man charged in the rape and kidnapping of a 15-year-old girl, said Chief Deputy Woody McEuen of the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office. The man allegedly took the girl to a Christmas tree farm on May 16 in a white pickup truck, McEuen said in a telephone interview last night.
The girl was able to escape and report the alleged incident. The man's truck got stuck at the farm, which enabled authorities to track his license plate through the Division of Motor Vehicles and broadcast his picture on television, McEuen said. The man, 38-year-old Richard Quinn of Jacksonville, Ark., turned himself in to authorities the day after the broadcast.
Arkansas police contacted Virginia authorities about the incident, McEuen said.
"I don't think it's panned out for them," he said. "I think this man's been living in this area for a good long while."
Smith said the Arkansas lead "gained our interest ... and we're still following up on it."
Just like they followed up on a report from Boonville, Mo., that a man driving a white pickup was stopped for a traffic violation and authorities saw a Free LanceöStar from early May sitting on the front seat. The newspaper would have included reports on the girls' slayings.
The man was not held by authorities, Smith said.
"I think they let him go because they didn't have anything to hold him on," he said. "That's not going to amount to anything."
Authorities have also looked into a report from the town of Louisa that a man in a white Ford Ranger apparently tried to coax a 15-year-old girl into his vehicle earlier this week, Smith said.
"We already know that truck was purchased after May 1, but it's something that we've got to follow up on," he said.
The FBI has also checked into all similar cases, past and present, from computer records listing cases nationwide, Smith said.
"Agencies from across the country are sending us teletypes," he said.
Numerous reporters flocked to the Spotsylvania Courthouse yesterday after learning that a search warrant for a house in Lake Wilderness was on file. It was the first search warrant filed on the Lisk case in Spotsylvania Circuit Court.
Carpet stains and fibers were removed from the abandoned house, which is on Garrison Lane. But several sources privately said they don't expect anything to come from that search.
Smith agreed that it's unlikely the house would prove helpful in the investigation, but "we haven't got the lab results back yet," he said this morning.
The renewed media crush led Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely to issue a press release yesterday saying he would make no further comments on the case until an arrest is made.
Neely said the media has "hyped-up" otherwise routine police procedures, and he said he will refer all media inquiries to the Sheriff's Office.
