Ebby Steppach Missing Update: Natalee Holloway Case Lead Investigator Hired By Family
The lead investigator in the Natalee Holloway case will now help find missing Little Rock teenager Ebby Steppach. Steepach's family hired investigator TJ Ward, who's hoping to shed some light on mysterious disappearance of the teenager two years ago.
Steppach was just 18 years old when she went missing on Oct. 24, 2015. Her car was found about a week later at a west Little Rock park. According to local reports, Steppach’s brother was the last person who spoke with her on the phone, and he told police that she sounded disoriented and lost.
A bounty of $50,000 has been offered for anyone with information about Steppach.
Ward has claimed that it is too early to determine what may have happened to Steppach, but he agrees to take the case to 100 percent.
“I have enough to get started by myself and to go on and if I can build a rapport with law enforcement, then whatever I find will be taken seriously and we are moving forward with this,” he said.
Ward said he knows working with local law enforcement is key in these types of cases.
“I know the rules and I know the rules of engagement and I know what the parameters are and a lot of private investigators that don't have prior experience and don't understand why law enforcement won’t share with them and give them information,” Ward said, according to CBS-affiliated television station THV11. “I know how to get information without ruining any credibility of their case and I will turn it over to them.”
While talking about one of the clues that he wants to pursue in the case, Ward said: "I went out to where her car was found and filtering through some of the information that was found in her car just raises my eyebrows a little bit."
Ward flew to Little Rock to look into Steppach's case after receiving a call from her family.
“I had felt like I had been alone in this fight is looking for my daughter and that's a big load to carry,” Laurie Jernigan said, as two years have passed since her daughter went missing. Jernigan said that with the public support her load is getting lighter.
“I have a bigger voice that is with me,” Jernigan added.
Ward is well-known for his Natalee Holloway case where he spent 12 years as a private investigator. Ward and Holloway's father carried out an independent search to find details about the disappearance of the teenager. Holloway went missing during her vacation in Aruba, a Dutch Carribean island off Venezuela on May 30, 2005.
Her father, Dave, conducted a private investigation during which he uncovered human skeletal remains at an undisclosed location in Aruba. However, recently it was revealed that the human remains did not belong to Holloway.
Joran Van der Sloot, who is the prime suspect in the case, is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores that took place five years to the day of Holloway’s disappearance.
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