Searches ordered in missing Calif. Marine wife case
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. - Investigators are searching two vehicles and two apartments in the ongoing search for missing pregnant Marine wife Erin Corwin, according to search warrants obtained by CBS affiliate KFMB.
Corwin, who is reportedly three months pregnant, vanished from her home at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., more than two weeks ago. She turned 20 this week.
Corwin's disappearance has been labeled suspicious by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, but deputies have not said it was the result of foul play and it's not clear whether the investigation is criminal in nature, said Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the sheriff.
Corwin's husband, Corporal Jonathan Corwin, told investigators she never returned from a day trip to nearby Joshua Tree National Park on June 28.
Corwin's mother has said she does not consider Jonathan Corwin to be a suspect.
The four search warrants are for two vehicles and two residences, according to the station, and were signed by a judge July 1. The vehicles are a dark-colored Jeep Cherokee with an Alaska license plate and a blue 2013 Toyota sedan. The Toyota reportedly belongs to Erin Corwin and was found on June 30.
The two street addresses in the warrants appear to be consistent with apartments on the Marine base, the station reports.
Boiler-plate language in the warrants allows investigators to seize evidence including latent prints, hair and fibers, tissue, DNA, weapons and firearms, and electronic storage devices and computers.
Probable cause affidavits associated with the warrants were sealed, according to the station.
KFMB also reports that a man named Michael Beasley told the station he saw Corwin meet up with a man around 10 a.m. the day she disappeared, near the location where a Twentynine Palms Water District employee would two days later spot Corwin's abandoned car. Beasley reportedly lives nearby.
Beasley reportedly said Corwin got out of her Toyota, locked the car, and got inside the man's red, compact sedan. The two then drove away, he told the station.
"They were just sitting and chatting. If she wanted to get out of the car and say, 'I don't want to be in this car,' she could have," Beasley told the station."When I came back a half hour later, just the (blue) car was sitting there. Next thing, I hear the weekend goes by and Monday morning the sheriffs are there looking for this girl because she ain't home yet."
Regarding Beasley's statements, Sheriff's spokeswoman Bachman told CBS News' Crimesider that her office "did not release that information and we did not confirm that information."
However, she said, "Because of the statements he's made, if he hasn't been interviewed already, I have no doubt he will be interviewed."
Beasley's sister, Jessica, told the station she remembered seeing Corwin's blue car, but closer to the road than it had been when it was found. She and her brother both say they believe it was later moved, according to the station.
Beasley described the man in the red car as having short hair and appearing to be less than five feet, nine inches tall, though Beasley told the station he never saw him left the car.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Bachman said that crews have been searching for Corwin since June 29, covering a 200-square-mile area in and around Joshua Tree National Park, oftentimes with helicopters. No sign of Corwin has yet been found, she said.
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