HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Investigators looking for clues in the disappearance of an Alabama woman nine years ago said they will analyze potential evidence found during a search of the home where she was last seen.
Authorities would not say what they located Wednesday while looking for the remains of Jennifer Fay Powers in a rural area near Huntsville, Alabama. But Sheriff's Capt. Michael Salomonsky told WHNT-TV that testing was the next step.
"We are going to submit those items to various labs for analysis and see if they can come back with any hair, fibers, blood, anything that we call trace evidence," said Salomonsky, of the Madison County Sheriff's Office.
Powers' husband told authorities she went outside on July 12, 2008, and never returned. She was 29 at the time, and a married mother of three.
Relatives said Powers had a drug problem but would not abandon her family. Investigators believe someone killed the woman, Salomonsky said, and authorities have a person of interest.
"You pray every day that she'll be found, and that's all you can do," said Shirley Locke, Powers' mother. "I just praise the Lord that they're still looking after all this time."
The search concentrated around the house where Powers and her family lived when she was last seen. Another family now owns the house and cooperated with the search, officials said.
Deputies said they used dogs that can detect human remains along with new technology they didn't have when Powers went missing.
"What we have is ground penetrating radar, which we didn't have nine years ago," said Salomonsky. "It penetrates the ground to a certain distance. It tells you if there are voids, holes, or metal objects."
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