Officials search former house of missing boy's family, Towanda, Kansas

BY BRENT D. WISTROM
The Wichita Eagle

Law enforcement personnel enter a home at 10300 block of N. 109th Street West between Bentley and Sedgwick on Wednesday, January 7, 2009.

Gallery: The Adam Herrman Case

Investigators from three law enforcement agencies searched a rural Sedgwick County home Wednesday for clues that might help them find out what happened to Adam Herrman.

What they found, if anything, remains unclear.

A Butler County official leaving the scene would say only that Sheriff Craig Murphy is very tired after several days of the investigation and would give details sometime this morning.

The search took place at a small, gray home that sits halfway down North 109th Street West, a dead-end dirt road about halfway between Bentley and Sedgwick in a loosely knit neighborhood.

The home is a former residence of Doug and Valerie Herrman, adoptive parents of Adam Herrman. It was moved from a Towanda mobile home park where authorities say Adam apparently disappeared in 1999 at age 11.

Officials from Butler County, Sedgwick County and Wichita arrived at the home just before 1 p.m. The family there invited investigators in, and they remained inside much of the day while officials walked in and out and talked in the backyard.

The investigators carried in several bags of equipment as well as garbage bags. They photographed the home inside and out. One of the Wichita officials who arrived in a crime scene investigation van wore a mask that covered his nose and mouth.

Outside, seven media vehicles lined the road. Curious neighbors peered from their windows and drove by slowly. Some stopped to ask what was going on.

Authorities have been investigating Adam's disappearance since the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit received a tip that he had not been seen for nine years.
The Herrmans say Adam ran away.

Detectives are investigating the case as if Adam were dead, even though they can't rule out that he is still alive, Murphy said Monday.

The search Wednesday follows searches of the Towanda mobile home park and the Herrmans' current home in Derby. From the Derby home, investigators took a computer and other items, including pictures of Adam and medical and psychological reports about him, the Herrmans' attorney, Warner Eisenbise, has said.

Saturday, investigators plan to search the Whitewater River area south of K-254.