Three years later, missing Baby Lisa’s parents haven’t given up

Her room remains much the way it was left on Oct. 4, 2011.

And her parents vow that it will stay that way until the little girl known across the country as Baby Lisa comes home.

But after the offer of a $100,000 reward and hundreds of tips and leads tracked down from Gladstone to Greece, what happened to Lisa Irwin remains a mystery.

In the early morning hours that day, Jeremy Irwin says, he returned to his home in Kansas City, North, and found that his 10-month-old daughter was missing.

The girl’s mother, Deborah Bradley, said she had last seen their daughter when she put the little girl to bed.

In the first few weeks after Lisa was reported missing, hundreds of law enforcement officers were involved in the search. A team of detectives worked the case full time, running down more than 1,500 calls.

Out-of-state investigators and lawyers got involved, and an anonymous benefactor offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Lisa’s safe return.

But as the volume of tips faded, detectives returned to working other cases and the national media moved on, and Lisa’s case faded from the public’s consciousness.

For Irwin and Bradley, though, that worst day of their lives has yet to end.

“It just gets harder,” Bradley said. “We try the best we can to function, to care for our boys and wait for her to come home.”

The initial torrent of leads has slowed, but Kansas City police said they follow up on any they receive. Detectives have received about 100 new tips in the last year, according to police.

“We are still actively investigating her disappearance,” said police Capt. Tye Grant. “We know that someone out there knows what happened to her.”

John Picerno, a Kansas City attorney who represents Lisa’s parents, said that despite the lack of “substantial, concrete leads,” the family has not given up hope that Lisa will be found safe.

He noted that missing people are sometimes found 10 or 20 years after they disappeared.

Irwin said that any tips the family receives are passed on to police.

On their website, findlisairwin.com, they have posted the message: “Thank you to the KCPD, the FBI and the hundreds of volunteers that are working tirelessly to find Lisa.”

With Lisa’s 4th birthday coming up next month, Bradley and Irwin plan to have a celebration complete with cake and presents. They have done that for each of the three birthdays that Lisa hasn’t been with them.

This story was originally published October 5, 2014 at 8:10 AM with the headline "Three years later, missing Baby Lisa’s parents haven’t given up."