I have covered this case since the very day that Baby Lisa disappeared -- exactly five years ago today. From the very first news report detailing her disappearance, something didn't sit well with me, and for very good reason. Not long after Lisa Irwin was reported missing, her mother's story began to unravel at an alarming speed. Nonetheless, Deborah Bradley has never been charged in connection with the six-month-old baby's disappearance. Still, detectives in Missouri have long-declared that neither Deb or her husband Jeremy Irwin have been cooperative in their efforts to find out what happened to the little girl. Could this be indicative of guilt? It's very possible, especially when looking at the big picture.
First of all, Deborah told police that someone came in through a bedroom window in order to snatch her sleeping daughter from her crib. This unknown person then walked right out the front door of the home -- but not before he (or she) turned on every light in the house, and stole at least two cellphones. Investigators quickly debunked the idea that someone entered through a window, by attempting to do a sort of reenactment. To make a long story short, nobody could have climbed through the window with ease.
Also, Deborah once claimed to authorities that she had last seen her baby when she put her down to bed in her crib on the evening prior to reporting her missing. However, she later admitted that she had gotten intoxicated, and really didn't see her daughter for many hours prior -- when she put her to bed at around 6:40 p.m. Bradley told detectives that she "blacked out," from drinking boxed wine, while she was caring for the six-month-old infant and her two half-brothers.
Over the course of the investigation and search, disturbing discoveries were made in the home inhabited by the missing infant and her family. Dog handler Martin Grime and his famed scent dogs reportedly found evidence that someone had died in the residence. The incriminating odor was found on clothing belonging to the baby, as well as in the room where Deborah Bradley passed out after her night of drinking.
Bradley has also publicly claimed that she failed a polygraph test during the initial investigation behind Baby Lisa's disappearance. Nonetheless, she has never been arrested or charged in connection with her daughter's disappearance, and authorities have never brought any closure to the circumstantial and forensic evidence that exists against her.
Will another five years pass before this missing infant is found? I think if she was going to be found at all, she would have been found earlier in the search for her. Whatever happened to her, someone has done a tremendous job of hiding her -- whether she's dead or alive. I'm more inclined to think she's no longer with us.