Thursday, August 23, 2007

Erwin's missing personnel file: Unresolved, but the story still won't go away

The police recently dropped their investigation into Barbara Erwin's missing personnel file.

I should drop it too, but the story won't quite die.

Having interviewed everyone who was still in town, apparently the only remaining prospect for the district and police was to subject central office employees to lie-detector tests. Schlomann demurred. He couldn't use any information obtained that way anyhow. I doubt the authorities seriously suspected any central office personnel of being the perpetrator.

I have a hard time imagining some file clerk making off with a precious souvenir of the Erwin era in Illinois - the now famous contract amendment #2 notwithstanding.

Now the Kane County Chronicle published two tid bits from the failed police search in today's paper.
  • The St Charles police investigation confirmed that the "locked" storage room was accessible by a master key after hours.
  • Investigators tried to reach Erwin multiple times but did not receive a response. Her home telephone in St. Charles has been disconnected.
Why wouldn't Erwin return a call to the police? What would you have done?

Am I mistaken, or did Barbara Erwin have means, motive and opportunity?

These are exactly the elements of investigation someone like Hercule Poirot would have used to solve tricky cases. But that's fiction.

In reality, the police have probably gone as far as they should go based on the evidence they have.

But now comes the rumor that Erwin's file is also missing
from her superintendency in Scottsdale!

A Kentucky School News and Commentary reader mentioned this a while back - and honestly - I blew it off. I took a quick peek at the Arizona Republic and couldn't find anything (in about a minute) verifying such a claim and quickly stopped looking. Now, sources tell me evidence is on the way.

I'll keep you posted if things develop.

In the meantime...can anyone tell me why State's Attorney John Barsanti is blowing off Bobbie Raehl?

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