Searchers found a body, but not of Barnes, and some assorted animal bones. All in all, it was a frustrating day that left police without any new clues in the girl's disappearance. "We are very much back at square one," a police spokesman said.
The search for Barnes has been one of the most extensive in years. A task force of six homicide detectives continues to work around the clock, and authorities are staffing a 24-hour hot line. But a flood of 200 tips that poured into the center in the first two months have slowed to just five in the past month.
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The hot line number is 855-223-0033.
Police have declined to say what tip led them to the park, but Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said at the onset of the search that such a massive and complex undertaking would not have been launched without what he called “actionable intelligence.”
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said only that “we identified this as an area of interest. It was associated with one of the people of interest we talked to, one of the 30 people who last saw Phylicia.” Police said they had searched part of the park before, but “frozen ground and the snow limited our ability to search further.”
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These photos of the today's search were taken by The Sun's Kim Hairston. Here's a list of some of the agencies that helped out on Saturday: