Story Published:
Apr 11, 2006 at 9:14 AM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 31, 2006 at 1:16 AM PST
LAKEWOOD - Police in Pierce County say the man they're calling a "person of interest" in the Adre'Anna Jackson murder is someone who previously found Adre'Anna's remains and never told police.
Officers are still looking for Spencer Grant. They stress that he is not a suspect in the murder, but he may be able to help answer questions about what happened to the young girl.
Police say Grant was a transient and they think he came out to the vacant lot and found the remains of Adre'Anna, and he knew about them a couple of weeks before two young boys found the and told police.
"We have some warrants out for his arrest," said Lt. Brett Farrar with Lakewood Police. "I don t know if that was part of it. He has a long history of contact with law enforcement, and perhaps he doesn't want to talk to us, we don t know but we will determine that once we find him."
Grant is a registered sex offender convicted of rape, drugs and assault. He was serving time at the date of her disappearance that is why he is not a suspect, but did he live in a house yards away from the transient camp, which was very close to where Adre'Anna was discovered, and he might have insight.
"He needs to step up and come talk to us about what he knows," Lt. Farrar said.
Meanwhile, there is an outpouring in the community since the FBI increased the reward to $60,000 for an arrest. And police continue to look and sift through the ground in the lot where her body was found, looking for answers.
"We have detectives tracking down leads as they come in and with the increasing the reward that sparked quite a few Crime Stopper tips and we have work to do in the field so we will just work through," Farrar said.
Police say the person that gave one of those tips said he spotted Spencer Grant in Tacoma two nights ago and they have reason to believe he is still in the area
As for work at the lot where Adre'Anna was found, they say it is slow going. They have to sift through every square inch of that land trying to look for evidence. They've uncovered about 200 pieces so far but they say this search will probably go through the end of the week. That is about the same time they expect to get the cause of Adre'Anna's death back from the medical examiner.