Missing Baby Lisa Irwin's Parents: 'I Would Do Anything to See Her Again'
Baby Lisa Irwin has been missing for four months, but her parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, are confident that their one-year-old daughter is alive, well and will return home. Nearly three months since the couple's last media interview, Bradley and Irwin shared their side of the story on the Dr. Phil Show Friday in the hopes of clarifying false reports and gaining national attention for missing baby Lisa.
Somebody is out there with my daughter and we just want her to come home, Bradley told viewers. Someone will see her eventually.
Baby Lisa's parents claim the then-10-month-old girl was taken from her crib late Oct. 3, 2011 while Bradley was asleep and Irwin was at work. When Irwin arrived home around 4 a.m., he found his daughter was missing. Authorities arrived at Lisa's home in response to Irwin's 911 call and allegedly found that a window and screen were tampered with, lights were left on, the family's front door was unlocked and three cell phones were missing. Bradley later admitted to being drunk when she went to bed that night.
The disappearance of baby Lisa prompted a thorough investigation from the Kansas City police department and the FBI. However, after four months of investigating the disappearance of the young child, authorities claim they still have no major leads or suspects in the case.
In a heartfelt interview, Dr. Phil McGraw asked Bradley and Irwin via satellite from New York to open up about inconsistencies remaining in the case. Their New York defense attorney, Joe Tacopina, and a private investigator, Bill Stanton, joined the couple.
All I know is someone came into our house and took her for some reason, baby Lisa's father Irwin told Dr. Phil. All I know is that she's still out there.
Investigators, the media and the public have scrutinized Bradley and Irwin's lives. The Kansas City police initially reported Lisa's mother, Bradley, had failed a lie detector test about the night her daughter disappeared.
She didn't fail a polygraph test, the couple's defense attorney, Tacopina, clarified Friday. It was confirmed to me that there was no failed polygraph test.
Authorities also claimed the couple failed to cooperate with police, by only allowing interviews with the couple together and by prohibiting police from questioning their two boys. On the show, Tacopina explains Lisa's parents have done everything in their power to be cooperative with the Kansas City Police Department and the FBI.
These two never refused anything, he told viewers.
Bradley has also come under fire for drinking five to ten glasses of wine the night Lisa disappeared. As a mother, she has been called neglectful and an alcoholic, but Bradley believes these accusations are wrong and unfair.
The only thing I'm guilty of is drinking too much, she said. And even when [Lisa] comes back, that's something that I have to live with, that I might have heard something and been able to stop it... [Drinking] has absolutely nothing to do with her being missing. When I was asked about it, I told the truth, because I have nothing to hide.
Bradley feels her family has not been treated fairly by police.
People don't understand how difficult it is to wake up and find [out that] someone came into your house and has taken your baby, she said Friday. The world we live in today isn't always a safe and happy place. There are a lot of crazy people, bad people and accidents happen.
Still, Bradley maintains her innocence and hopes that the media and the public can focus on finding her daughter, rather than focusing on her missteps or mistakes.
There's nothing but misinformation out there, Bradley explained. Theories and accusations. It became a circus, it is not a joke [and] it is not a circus.
After the first month of Lisa's disappearance, the couple ceased media interviews for 90 days to allow investigators to focus on following leads and tips without media interference. When asked if new leads had been found during this period, Bradley replied, Yes, but I'm not going to speak about it.
Bill Stanton, a private investigator hired by an anonymous female philanthropist to independently help find baby Lisa, joined Tacopina, Bradley and Irwin. Although he admits he first presumed Bradley and Irwin may have been involved in Lisa's disappearance, Stanton reaffirmed his belief on the Dr. Phil Show that Lisa had been taken from someone outside of the home.
When I met Jeremy and Deborah, I said, 'I'm not here for you. I'm here for Lisa, if that takes me to you as a guilty party, I'll come for you,' he explained. And they said, 'Go find our baby.'
Stanton said that when police or the public focus on Bradley, his first question is always, Tell me how Deb did it. He does not believe Irwin or Bradley was involved in Lisa's disappearance.
Despite the couple's insistence of their innocence, Dr. Phil asked about an alleged cadaver dog hit that was found in the couple's bedroom, indicating that the scent of dead cells was in the room. Stanton explains that the alleged hit could have been from anything - from dead skin cells to trace amounts of fecal matter that had fallen from an old diaper of baby Lisa's.
Dr. Phil also asked about strange phone activity that was confirmed on Irwin and Bradley's cell phone in the early morning of Oct. 4, the night Lisa disappeared. Although Bradley remembers leaving the phone on her kitchen counter, it was gone the next morning. A 50 second call was made on the cell phone to Megan Wright, a resident unknown to Irwin and Bradley. The family believes this indicates someone other than Irwin and Bradley had been in their home on the night of Lisa's disappearance.
In addition to the odd cell phone activity, Tacopina explains that three witnesses claimed to see a man walking in the late hours of the night with a diapered baby the night of Lisa's disappearance. He believes the man witnessed is conclusive evidence that someone outside of the home took baby Lisa.
Every day I wake up and I think about her, Bradley told viewers. And I go to sleep and I think about her. And it's almost everything I can do to stay sane... I would do anything to see her again. To the people that have her, you can drop her off at a hospital, at a church, just please, please, bring her home. We don't want you. We want her.
If you have any information about missing Baby Lisa Irwin, please call 1-816-474-TIPS or 1-800-THE-LOST.
Related Article: Missing Baby Lisa Irwin: What Happened the Night She Disappeared?
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