Body found near home of missing Va. mom
PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- Police in southeastern Virginia say a body has been found near the home of a Portsmouth mother who disappeared two weeks ago.
Detective Missy Holley tells media outlets that officers were called to the wooded area late Tuesday night. It was not immediately clear whether the death was a homicide.
The body was taken to the medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death and whether the person is 32-year-old Kathleen "Katie" Barham, who was last seen May 27 when she went to wash clothes in the Churchland apartment building where she lived with her two children and fiancee.
Her fiance, Richard Fegan, the children's father, told CBS affiliate WTKR he found her clothes still warm in the dryer.
The body was so badly decomposed authorities could not tell whether it was a man or a woman, reports the station.
"We're thinking it's her - it's so close to the apartment, it would be where she was walking to get change for the dryer," Robert Poisal, the boyfriend of Barham's mother, told WTKR.
Shortly after the remains were found on Tuesday night, Fegan told the station that police wanted to question him and give him a polygraph test.
"They're going in the wrong direction. And now they know the news is all over it, whoever actually did do it could be fleeing the area as we speak, and maybe already has," Poisal, the missing woman's boyfriend, told the station.
Barham's family told WTKR that they've been calling Portsmouth Police for two weeks, but a detective wasn't assigned to the case until Monday. The department said in a statement it's launching an internal review to determine the cause of the delay.
Fegan said he called police to report the disappearance, but a detective told him he couldn't track Barham's phone without a warrant. Barham's cousin, however, told the station that Fegan didn't contact Barham's family until nine days after she disappeared.
"I just didn't want to jump the gun and make everyone concerned for her before I was sure there was a problem," Fegan told the station.
An autopsy was expected to be completed Thursday.