Missing Baby Lisa Irwin: Volunteers Search Closed Casino, But Are Police Giving Up?

Lisa Irwin and Unrelated Stabbing Incident — A man questioned in connection to the case of missing baby Lisa Irwin has been charged with first-degree assault in an unrelated incident. Dane "Diggler" Greathouse, 28, has been charged for stabbing Greg R. May this weekend in Gladstone, Mo. Baby Lisa's parents, Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, claim missing baby Lisa was taken from her crib late Oct. 3, 2011 while Bradley was asleep and Irwin was at work. The one-year-old remains missing. Reuters

Volunteers searched a closed casino for missing baby Lisa Irwin Saturday following visions from a Dallas psychic, Stephanie Almaguer. The psychic made claims on her blog that the missing one-year-old died accidentally in her home and was then dumped in an area resembling the Kansas City location.

About 25 people searched for missing Lisa Irwin on Saturday, reported KCTV 5. The search surrounded the former Sam's Town Casino at Interstate 435 and Highway 210 in Missouri.

Locals identified the casino region from a blog post by Almaguer. The self-proclaimed psychic claims she had a vision that Lisa Irwin was buried by a river and a tower. She then posted a drawing of what she saw in her vision.

Kansas City Police Capt. Steve Young told KCTV 5 that the police is aware of Almaguer's reported visions and that, in fact, authorities have been contacted by numerous psychics. However, he claims the information has not been useful.

Police did not join volunteers in Saturday's search of former Sam's Town Casino.

The search Saturday seems to be one of the few leads in the disappearance of baby Lisa Irwin in the past week. Although police have received over 1,000 tips and leads since the disappearance of the child, leads have begun to dry up.

It doesn't mean it can't warm up in the future, former FBI agent Jeff Lanza told KCTV 5. It just means cold right now... As leads come in, they will take action when action is needed.

Police insist that they have not given up on baby Lisa Irwin, reports The Associated Press. However, a command post set up for police and FBI agents to investigate the disappearance of missing baby Lisa Irwin has been shut down, Kansas City police reported Wednesday.

Detectives have been moved from their outpost back to their old offices. Young told KCTV 5 that, nonetheless, the case remains open and police continue to investigate.

There is still work being done on the case, Young said Wednesday, reports the AP. It's not to say there has been neglect on the other cases, but there has been a heavy workload for detectives who weren't assigned to the command post ... This will get things more back to normal.

Police also say they have to turn their attention to other child abuse and neglect cases that have come in since Lisa's disappearance. The Kansas City Crimes Against Children Unit currently has more than 200 cases, so it would be difficult to keep numerous local and federal agents focused on Lisa Irwin.

Still, Young insists that police will not push aside baby Lisa's case. Seven or eight detectives remain assigned to her investigation, but they will also be looking at other cases.

The people who are working this are not going to let this go, Young told the Kansas City Star. But we have other cases and other victims.

Although police are putting much of their energy on other cases, Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, does not think this means Lisa Irwin will never be found.

In these longer-term cases where a child is not found quickly, you simply don't have enough for people to do, Allen told the AP. You can't maintain a command post and that level of staffing indefinitely. The fields have been searched, interviews conducted, the intense immediate response to the child's disappearance has happened. The challenge now is to make sure the public doesn't forget.

Allen seems to believe that someone knows or has information on what happened to missing baby Lisa Irwin and he urges them to contact police.

For now, the case of missing baby Lisa remains a mystery that began when Lisa's father, Jeremy Irwin, returned home on Oct. 4 after working overtime, to find the door open, the lights in his house on, windows tampered with and his daughter missing. Three cell phones were reportedly missing as well. Lisa's mother, Deborah Bradley, had allegedly put her daughter to sleep around 6:30 p.m. and proceeded to drink five to ten glasses of wine before passing out around 10:30 p.m. Since Oct. 4, authorities have scoured the surrounding area following all major tips and leads, but they have found no signs of baby Lisa.

Despite rumored developments with the Irwin-Bradley's missing cell phones, the investigation has hit a standstill.

Follow Julia Greenberg on Twitter: @julia_greenberg.

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