The search for missing Katherine Phillips, or “Baby Kate,” continues as MSU faculty, law enforcement and experts work together to narrow down the location of the four-month-old infant’s final resting place. During a recent weekend search, over 80 volunteers gathered plant and moss specimen in hopes of finding the plant fragments that were found on the suspect’s shoes before she went missing two years ago.
Authorities determined the search to be a success, with the lab results pending. They remain hopeful the plant search will help bring the investigation to its next stage.
The suspect, Sean Michael Phillips, is the baby’s father and reportedly had custody of her when she disappeared. He is believed to have killed her and discarded her body in the area. He is now 23 and serving a 10-to-15 year prison term for the unlawful imprisonment of his daughter.
“It was a very successful search in terms of narrowing down the areas we need to investigate,” MSU plant biology professor Frank Telewski said. “What we need to do now is not only identify the plants, but rely on further lab results to confirm the species we collected are the ones we’re looking for.”
Telewski, who is also the curator of the MSU Beal Botanical Garden and the Campus Arboretum has led the scientific research done at MSU for about 18 months. After he and other MSU faculty members were able to find specific communities of plants that included all the species found on the suspect’s shoes, the search started in various places that contained these plants, assistant curator Peter Carrington said.
“We have a lot of material now that is out in the labs being confirmed,” Telewski said. “The police department is (now) creating a map of where these plants are located in the area and what we’re trying to do is figure out which areas have the majority of the plants.”
Now that enough specimen has been collected, Ludington Police Department Detective, J.B. Wells, has been working to locate an area that they’re confident contains the remains of “Baby Kate” so they can create a secondary investigation. During the secondary investigation, they hope to substantially narrow down the property they are searching and make attempts to locate any remains.
“My investigation has been (working to) locate anyone that knows anything and everything to give me a better idea as of where we should be searching,” Wells said. “We’ve definitely narrowed the haystack down to a hay-bale.”
The police department has not ruled out the idea of having another search, but on a much smaller scale than the last search. Wells said many of the search volunteers showed a positive interest and willingness to come back again.
“It’s a tragedy for the families involved and certainly a tragedy for Baby Kate,” Telewski said. “It’s very sad that the infant was taken and disappeared. (The father) does admit he was involved with her death, although he is saying it was an accident, but nonetheless she’s not with us anymore.”
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