The sheriff's department held a briefing Wednesday afternoon. Investigators are reaching out to other agencies in Northern California to see if there are any similar crimes involving children. We also know they are focusing heavily on that house that Leila was killed.
"We still have search warrants in progress at that house," said Sgt. Chris Hewitt, a spokesperson for the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office.
Calaveras County Sheriff's officials say they have no new significant breaks in the 8-year-old's murder. But they did reveal what kind of evidence they've taken from the Fowler home.
"Some DNA evidence, I cannot go into any further information on that," Sgt. Hewitt said. "We've collected some fingerprints, and we've collected a few knives. Those are being examined to determine if one of those knives might have been the weapon that was used against Leila."
Calaveras Sheriff's confirmed they did send a detective to Placerville Wednesday morning to take a DNA sample from Jason Wayrynen. He was arrested Tuesday for trying to abduct a toddler. At this point, detectives say there's no clear connection to the Fowler case, but they want to make sure.
Meantime, highway patrol cars continue to block each end of the road where the Fowler home is located.
"They came and searched our trash the other day," neighbor Julie Hall said.
This neighbor is growing frustrated with the heavy police presence.
"I'm frustrated, yeah, I'm frustrated that, you know what, that we can't live a normal life again, and, you know what, I'd imagine that Leila's family would like to live a normal life again," Hall said.
On Wednesday we asked if any DNA samples have been taken from the Fowler family, or if any of them have taken a lie detector test, but officials would not answer those questions.
A Memorial Fund has been set up for Leila Fowler at F&M Bank of Central California. Please mail all donations to:
F&M Bank
18836 E. Main Street
Linden, CA 95236
Questions: (209) 887-2299
Routing # 1211 08441
Acct# 421934101
