Cops search for clues in case of missing Mich. women Abreeya Brown, Ashley Conaway
(CBS/WWJ) DETROIT - Detroit police investigating the disappearance of two Michigan women, 18-year-old Abreeya Brown and 21-year-old Ashley Conaway, searched through trash cans in Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood Tuesday, looking for clues near where a burned out vehicle was found shortly after the pair was kidnapped.
Detectives also searched through several burned out and vacant homes, as well as a park in the community, according to CBS Detroit.
The two best friends haven't been heard from since Conaway sent a text message saying they were locked in the trunk of a car.
The station reports that Brown's stepfather, Charles McGinnis, called police about 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 to report that Brown and Conaway had been kidnapped. He said he had exchanged gunfire outside the home on Andrus Street with two men who abducted them.
Brandon Cain, 26, is a suspect in the case and was charged with intent to murder and other charges stemming from a Feb. 8 shooting in Detroit where a friend of the two women alleges that Cain ordered another man to shoot at Brown and Conaway.
A friend said that after the shooting, Cain "kept calling her (Conaway), telling her 'I'll give you $5,000 a piece if you don't tell on me, I'm sorry baby, I love you,' and all that. And I'm like 'Quit answering the phone for him,' and she actually got her number changed that day when she got kidnapped, the day before," the friend told WWJ.
According to the Detroit Free Press, police say Cain and another man came to the home Brown shares with her stepfather and Conaway and when the women refused to take money not to testify against them, a gun was placed to one of their heads and they were both forced into the trunk of a Chrysler.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Hamtramck Police at 313-876-7803 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. The reward for tips leading to an arrest is over $35,000.
More on Crimesider:
March 2, 2012 - Two Mich. women missing, suspected kidnapper charged in earlier shooting