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Mo. parents describe panic after baby disappeared

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
This photo provided Oct. 4, 2011, by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, shows Lisa Irwin. Kansas City police have issued an Amber Alert for the 10-month-old girl who apparently was abducted from her bedroom overnight. Lisa has blue eyes and blond hair. She is 30 inches tall and weighs between 26 and 30 pounds. (AP Photo, Kansas City Police Department)
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An undated family photo of Lisa Irwin, now 10-months-old, is shown at a news conference in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011. The parents of Lisa made a tearful plea for the child's safe return Wednesday, nearly two days after she disappeared, begging her abductor to drop her off someplace safe. (AP Photo/Family Photo via The Kansas City Star)
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The parents of missing 10-month old Lisa Irwin, Jeremy Irwin, right, and Deborah Bradley, are escorted into their home to collect personal items in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011. The parents made a tearful plea for the child's safe return nearly two days after she disappeared, begging her abductor to drop her off someplace safe. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Mike Ransdell)
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This photo provided Oct. 4, 2011, by the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, shows Lisa Irwin, center. The parents of the 10-month-old Kansas City girl who disappeared from her bed days ago have been cooperative and aren't considered suspects, police said, as federal agents searched the family's home with dogs. Lisa was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Monday when her mother put her to bed. (AP Photo, Kansas City, Missouri Police Department)
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Kansas City Missouri Fire Department Rescue Technicians used repelling equipment as they search a wooded area for missing 10-month-old Lisa Irwin in Kansas City, Mo. Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Irwin was presumably abducted overnight from her Kansas City home by an intruder who climbed through a bedroom window, authorities said. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Mike Ransdell)
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Kansas City police stand outside the home 10-month-old Lisa Irwin disappeared from in Kansas City, Mo. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Irwin's mother reported last seeing the baby when she put her into her crib around 10:30 p.m. Monday. The father called police around 4 a.m. Tuesday when he returned home from his job at an electrical company and couldn't find the baby. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Jim Barcus)
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The parents of missing 10-month old Lisa Irwin, Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, speak during a news conference in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 5, 2011. The parents made a tearful plea for the child's safe return Wednesday, nearly two days after she disappeared, begging her abductor to drop her off someplace safe. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Mike Ransdell)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. >> The parents of a 10-month-old girl who was apparently snatched from her crib said Thursday that they frantically searched their Kansas City home for any sign of her but found only an open window, an unlocked front door and house lights blazing.

Whoever took Lisa Irwin either late Monday night or early Tuesday also stole the couple’s three cellphones — including one that doesn’t work, Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley said during a tearful news conference.

Irwin said he knew immediately that something was wrong when he returned home from work about 4 a.m. Tuesday. He first checked on his 6- and 8-year old sons and then went to Lisa’s room and discovered her gone.

"I said, ‘What do you mean she is not in her crib?’" Bradley said. "I just knew, you know, that something was really wrong. We ran around the house and screaming for her, but she was nowhere."

Bradley said that’s when they discovered the phones had been taken — apparently to delay them from calling police. As she hugged her crying sons, Irwin checked outside and eventually contacted police.

The couple didn’t check to see if anything else had been taken, Bradley said.

"I didn’t care about any of that," she said. "I still don’t."

Bradley said she is trying to stay hopeful.

"She’s our little girl. She completes our family. She means everything to my boys. … I can’t live without her," she said.

Irwin said the abduction has been especially hard on the boys, who constantly ask if she has been found.

"We tell them, ‘Not yet, not yet,’" Irwin said. "It’s the only thing we can think to tell them."

The parents said they can’t think of anyone who would want to take Lisa or who had shown an unusual interest in her.

"All I can think of is that maybe somebody wanted a baby," Bradley said.

Lisa has blue eyes and blonde hair, is 30 inches tall and weighs around 28 pounds. She was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with pictures of white kittens.

Investigators have no suspects and few solid leads following an intensive search that has included federal agents with search dogs scouring the home and nearby woods. About 300 law officers have been using helicopters, all-terrain vehicles and door-to-door interviews to look for the baby.

Police have yet to release details about their plans for Thursday, if they would keep the investigation close or expand the search. Capt. Steve Young said police would be working overnight and early Thursday "same as before."

"We’re going to keep working as long as calls come in and we think there’s absolutely anything we can do," Young said late Wednesday.

Police say the parents are not suspects in Lisa’s disappearance.

"If we had more to go on, we could start eliminating some things, but we frankly don’t have anything to justify elimination," Young said.

The child was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Monday when her mother checked on her in her crib. Her father discovered the baby missing about five hours later, when he got home from a late-night shift at work.

Police have said one possibility they were investigating was whether someone entered the home through a front window and snatched the baby, but they haven’t pointed to any sign of forced entry.

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Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City contributed to this report.

 

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