The Porter County Sheriff Department's search for evidence began just after 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
Metal detectors, a bloodhound and plenty of manpower. For the 2nd day in a row members of the Porter County Sheriff's Department searched for any evidence that would help in the case against Dustin McCowan, the 18-year-old accused of killing Amanda Bach.
"Anything that we feel that does show a potential connection, and we have to be mindful that we're looking for a lot of things that we don't know yet," said Sheriff David Lain. "And certainly DNA evidence, if we could locate any DNA evidence, that would be very beneficial."
While Porter County Sheriff Lain would not get into specifics, police are still in search of the murder weapon.
Nineteen-year-old Bach was shot to death. Her body was discovered along railroad tracks about 300 yards from McCowan's Valparaiso home.
Thursday's search included the 2 and half miles between where Bach was found and the Wheeler general store where her car was discovered.
"When you have a vast amount of real estate, it takes times. You need to go over it maybe more than once," said Lain.
While police continue the search, family and friends of Amanda Bach arrived at her Portage Catholic church for the teenager's visitation. The visitation began at 3 p.m. Thursday and was scheduled to go until 8 p.m.
"She was wonderful," said Dr. Carlos Cespedes, Amanda Bach's uncle. "She was very spontaneous, lovely, beautiful, she was a little bit of a jokester. She liked being around a lot of people. She liked having a lot of fun."
Amanda's uncle says, while the family fully supports the sheriff's departments efforts, Thursday's visitation is to celebrate Amanda's life, not dwell on who killed her.
"My message as a priest is that God's passion for justice is fierce, but His mercy and compassion are fiercer," said Father Andrew J. Corona, Nativity of Our Savior Church.
That is the message Corona will deliver Friday at Bach's funeral, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Nativity of Our Savior.
A police spokesperson said nothing of note was found during Thursday's search for evidence.
