Portage County site searched for Amber Wilde clues, Green Bay police were searching late into the night on Wednesday after obtaining a warrant related to the 1998 disappearance of college student Amber Wilde.Detectives, assisted by sheriff's deputies were searching about 30 acres in Portage County, west of Waupaca, Police said the search involved an area that had been searched in 2000, but were not releasing further details.
Detectives brought an underwater camera and a cadaver-detecting dog to search the property, which has at least one pond, a police official said. The property is owned by a relative of a person who knew Wilde, the official said.
"Based on advances in forensic science and technology, and information learned during the investigation, a warrant was applied for and granted for this property," police said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities wouldn't divulge the purpose of the search, or whether they found what they were seeking.
"We can't disclose what we were looking for, or any information that led us there," said Detective Capt. Todd Thomas. He said the search was ongoing as of 8:30 p.m., and that he hoped it would be complete by midnight.
Police Lt. Jeff Brester said the Portage County Sheriff's Office assisted in the search.
A family member said she hopes the search yields some news that can bring closure to relatives who have suffered for more than 15 years.
"We're just very exciting that (police) are working on this, and that they feel they have a lead," said Laurie Ehnert, Wilde's aunt and godmother. She said Detective Lee Kingston contacted the family Wednesday morning to inform them of the search.
Wilde, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student from Fond du Lac County, was 19 and pregnant when she disappeared in late September 1998.
She was last in contact with her father by telephone on Sept. 23 of that year, checking in to discuss a minor car accident she had had shortly before her disappearance. Authorities later found her car outside a bar just west of Lambeau Field, but have never found a trace of the missing teen.
Officially, her disappearance is classified as a missing-person case. But detectives and family members say they hold little hope that Wilde is still alive, and detectives readily acknowledge that she is likely a homicide victim.Police have conducted several searches over the course of their investigation, but have been unable to solve Wilde's disappearance.
Wilde was due to have her child in February 1999. She had hoped to attend medical school and become a pediatrician.
Since she disappeared, she never again used her credit card or touched her bank account. No calls were made on her cellphone, or on the land line that kept her connected with family in Mayville, where her father lived; and Campbellsport, where she had gone to high school. Even if she'd had time to meet people in the three weeks since she arrived in Green Bay, she didn't hang out in bars or run with a rough crowd.
And unlike someone who had been the victim of an accident, her body has never been found. Suspicion, particularly among Wilde's family, quickly focused on the father of Wilde's unborn child. But police have not publicly called him a suspect, and no one has been charged in Wilde's disappearance. Police say simply that they have a "person of interest," whom they won't identify.
Detectives investigating Wilde's disappearance also have conducted searches in Shawano County in the past.
