Police Search River for Cori Baker

Officials search river anew for missing girl Cori Baker

By CLIFTON ADCOCK World Staff Writer
3/14/2008

Authorities took advantage of low water levels in the Arkansas River on Thursday to search for a Tulsa teenager who has been missing since November.

Police officers, sheriff's deputies and firefighters searched in the riverbed and areas near the river between the 4500 block and 6000 block of Riverside Drive, hoping to find the body of Cori Baker or clues about her disappearance.

Cori, 13, has been missing since Nov. 9, when police say her older sister's boyfriend, Marquis Bullock, picked her up from Union Alternative School. Bullock was arrested and has been charged with Cori's murder.

Law enforcement officers, firefighters, relatives, volunteers and a self-proclaimed psychic have all searched ex tensively for Cori but have turned up very little. Searchers have scoured the river for clues before, but the low water levels Thursday provided another opportunity to search. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had shut off the water upstream for repairs at the Keystone Dam.

About 50 law enforcement officers and firefighters searched between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the riverbed, the bank and nearby hills and wooded areas, said Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham.

They found some clothing, but it doesn't appear to match what Cori was wearing the day she disappeared, he said.

Searchers also found bones in the area, but the Medical Examiner's Office determined that they were deer bones, Willingham said.

Barring a tip or new evidence, police won't continue to search the area Friday, he said. "We feel we've adequately searched this section of the river," Willingham said, adding that police are hopeful that more tips will come in.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 596-COPS.

Comments

[SHANNON]

please dont never stop looking for cori baker.we need her home. so she can rest in peace...