Delaware County Daily Times - Sept 1, 1999 Article

By ROSE QUINN Of the Times Staff

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Wednesday, September 1, 1999

Author: ROSE QUINN Of the Times Staff

MEDIA - Members of the Katelyn Rivera-Helton Task Force yesterday resumed their search in Cecil County, Md., aided by nearly 30 cadets from a Maryland police academy.

Delaware County District Attorney Patrick Meehan said the search targeted an area contiguous to the home of friends where Robert N. Rivera spent the night after kidnapping the still-missing 20-month-old girl from daycare on Aug. 10.

"They're looking for any evidence'' Meehan said of the small army of FBI agents, Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division detectives, and Cecil County law officers and cadets.

Last week, a shovel found at a Maryland construction site along Route 40 was been positively identified as one missing from the couple's home.

Weeks back, the homeowner showed a television news crew a shed, unattached from the house, from which the shovel had been removed.

She also said that Rivera was asked to leave the home the day after he arrived because he was displaying odd behavior.

On Monday, Meehan said investigators were interested in the whereabouts of a standard-issue tire iron believed to have been in the red Ford Escort car Rivera was driving the day of the kidnapping.

The tire iron was not in the truck of the car when investigators searched it after Rivera 's arrest at the Sharpless Road home of Katelyn 's grandparents.

Rivera is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on assault and kidnapping offenses before District Justice Rocco Gaspari at 9 a.m. today.

Rivera, who's being held at the county prison on $100,000 cash bail, told investigators he gave Katelyn to strangers he met at Longwood Gardens the night she disappeared.

Authorities have not been able to independently verify his story.

According to Meehan, Rivera turned up at the Cecil County property about 10 p.m. that night -- without his daughter.

The two had been last seen together at a gas station at Route 1 and 100, a couple miles from Longwood Gardens.

The property, on Wood Duck Lane along the Elk River, is an estimated 25 miles from the Pennsylvania-Delaware state line.

By Meehan's description, the area is "dense and remote.''

Jennifer Helton, Katelyn 's mother, told the Daily Times after the kidnapping that Rivera repeatedly called her collect from the road. At least one call was made from Delaware.

In addition to the tire iron, there's some question involving a baby car seat, at least on Jennifer Helton's part.

Helton told the Daily Times that while the woman who owns the Escort has no children, a baby car seat was seen in the car at one point.

To date, part of the Elk river and nearby woods have been searched, in addition to the construction site.