Opinion ID: 2600593
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The search of the apartment complex

Text: Shortly after 9:00 p.m. on April 23, the first police officers arrived at the large apartment complex and coordinated efforts among officers and private citizens to check all the apartments and areas of the complex. Detective Mark Franey of the Barstow Police Department arrived at the apartment complex at approximately midnight. Franey was informed that efforts had been made to telephone or visit every apartment in the complex, and that someone had been contacted at all but four or five of the units. According to the information received by Franey, one of the apartments at which there had been no response was defendant's apartment. Another belonged to the manager of the apartment complex, who was out of town. The other apartments were vacant. Defendant's apartment was located directly across from the satellite dishes where Tahisha's ball was found. The apartment had a sliding glass door that faced the satellite dishes. Stefan and his friends sometimes played in the area in front of defendant's apartment, and on occasion defendant emerged from his apartment and yelled at them. Approximately two weeks prior to Tahisha's disappearance, she and her friend, Carrie Pizzo, 11 years of age, were riding their bicycles in front of defendant's apartment when defendant exited through his sliding glass door and told the girls to get the hell out of there. Eight or nine months earlier, defendant had approached Ashley Cook, one of Tahisha's kindergarten classmates who also resided at the Rimrock Apartments. Ashley was riding her bicycle in circles and singing when defendant attempted to grab her and told her she was being too noisy. Between 1:00 and 1:15 a.m. on Saturday as the search continued, Tahisha's mother told Detective Franey about the incident involving Ashley Cook, and Louis Jannsen, the maintenance man for the apartment complex, told Franey that defendant was kind of weird. Franey also learned at this time that defendant's apartment was located near the satellite dishes. Jannsen and Barstow Police Detective Leo Griego then went to the apartment manager's office to obtain information concerning defendant, and Franey walked to the area of the satellite dishes. By this time, officers had expanded their search outside of the apartment complex and had found a ball similar to Tahisha's ball in a nearby park. Franey traveled to the park, recovered the ball, and returned to the Clay apartment at approximately 1:55 a.m., but Marianne informed Franey that the recovered ball was not Tahisha's ball.