'11

The disappearance of 11 month-old Baby Lisa takes the cover of People this week. I’m assuming that Mariska Hargitay’s adorable babies might be front and center if there weren’t so much interest in this case. Mariska and her two new babies are on a side bar while the cover asks “What Happened to Baby Lisa? A Mother Under Fire.”
Earlier this week it came out that Lisa’s mom, Debbie Bradley, had fudged the time line in which she originally claimed to have checked on Lisa. Bradley told police at first that she last saw the baby at 10:30 PM. She then revised her story to admit that she had put Lisa to bed at 6:40, got drunk with her best friend, a female neighbor, and then didn’t see Lisa again before she went missing. I understand why Bradley may have been reluctant to admit she was drunk, but why didn’t she own up to this two weeks ago when Lisa first disappeared? Adding to the suspicion surrounding this case, Bradley and her husband have refused to let police re-interview her 8 and 5 year-old boys, who were there the night that Lisa went missing. Curiously, Bradley says that the boys heard noises that night but “I don’t know if that was before we went to sleep or after. I have not sat down and talked to them about it specifically to not to have to put them through anything else.” Are you kidding? If my baby went missing and my other kids heard something I would sit them down and ask them about it for a very long time.
The teaser story on People.com doesn’t reveal much we haven’t already heard. Bradley is quoted as saying “We have absolutely nothing to hide. Let them search all they want, but do not take the focus off finding my daughter.” Police executed a search warrant of the home and surrounding property yesterday. It’s worth noting that Bradley and her fiance (although she is still married to her estranged husband), Jeremy Irwin, have voluntarily let police search the home prior to this more official search.
Meanwhile Bradley and Irwin now have a top defense attorney representing them. They hired Joe Tacopina, who represented convicted murderer Joran van der Sloot in his Aruba trial. It wasn’t a great decision considering that it makes them look like they have something to hide. Maybe Tacopina offered his services free of charge, though, and they didn’t know who they were dealing with. They don’t seem like the savviest of people. As for why Bradley changed her story to admit that she was drinking that night, Tacopina says “She was willing to tell the truth about it, even if it didn’t make her look great. I think that goes to her credit. It’s her being truthful.” It took her long enough to be “truthful,” and in the mean time investigators may have missed key details about what happened to her baby. I’m hoping that Bradley and Irwin are totally innocent and that Baby Lisa is alive and well somewhere, but it’s not looking good.



















