Police: Another Search Warrant Executed In Pagnac Case
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Authorities executed a search warrant Monday at a property north of the Twin Cities in connection with the 1989 disappearance of Amy Sue Pagnac. It's the second search warrant to be executed in the case in recent weeks.
The Maple Grove Police Department said they executed the search warrant at 9 a.m. Monday near the 37000 block of Verdin Street NW in Stanchfield, which is just north of Cambridge. Authorities said the search warrant was done in collaboration with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Isanti County Sheriff's Office and the FBI.
The area is near the farm where her father, Marshall Midden, spent the day with Pagnac before she went missing. It's not immediately clear if the farm was a part of Monday's search warrant.
On Tuesday, Maple Grove Police Captain Keith Terlinden would not comment on the actual search itself, the case data and what's next for the investigation.
"We're going to be there 24 hours a day. Search warrant started at 9:30 on Monday morning and we'll be there till we're done," Terlinden said.
Susan Pagnac told WCCO-TV officers contacted her Tuesday morning about the search and she said she is glad they are searching the land. She said authorities are likely going back to the beginning of the investigation, and searching their family farm is part of that.
"As long as they follow through on every possibility, I'm happy," Susan said.
Susan said the day Amy went missing, Midden had been weeding their organic farm while Amy was playing and picking raspberries.
Susan said she and Midden have not been up at the farm since last year and they haven't grown crops in several years. At one time they did sell Christmas trees, lumber and organic crops at the farm.
Neighbor Jody Scheffer says Tuesday's search was not an entirely unfamiliar sight.
"A little over four years ago, some of the same action … police officers, they'd go in back, they were here for many days," Scheffer said.
Neighbor Victor Lingten says he remembers when community members began to talk about the case.
"Even back then, they assumed she'd been murdered," Lingten said. "I never did hear much after that whether they did find her."
Officers say even though they can't reveal what they know, they've got a goal and ground to cover.
Authorities spent about a week at Pagnac's childhood residence in Maple Grove late last month executing a search warrant. Pagnac was 13 when she disappeared from an Osseo gas station in August 1989. Her father had stopped to use the restroom, and he told police she was gone when he returned.
Pagnac's mother has said the girl had a medical condition that caused her to become disoriented, and she may have wandered off and been picked up by someone. Her parents said she had run away before and believed she would be home the next day.
Maple Gove Police are asking anyone with information about Pagnac's disappearance to call (763) 494-6100, or call Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
