Parents barred from home during FBI search of missing baby Lisa Irwin

The Associated Press Contributed to this Report

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The intense search of a missing Kansas City infant Lisa Irwin's home lasted into the early-morning hours Thursday as a bomb squad from Lee's Summit was called in to assist investigators.

Authorities are not saying what they found inside or outside the home belonging to Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, who say an intruder snatched their baby daughter, Lisa, from her crib in the middle of the night as the mother and two other boys slept more than two weeks ago.

Investigators with the Kansas City Police Department and FBI spent most of the day Wednesday searching the couple’s home. They executed a search warrant at the home for the first time. The couple was barred from the home during the search, msnbc reports .

The Lee's Summit Bomb Squad, which arrived around 7 p.m. Wednesday, was the second such unit brought in during the search. Earlier, a Kansas City Police Department bomb squad truck arrived at the house. In an email sent to media, Kansas City police spokesman Steve Young said the KCPD Bomb and Arson squad truck was used just for equipment. There was no explosive device in the home, he said.

Soon after daylight arrived Wednesday, officers headed to the back of the home with shovels, rakes and a ladder and could be seen digging behind a shed in the yard. Out front, investigators left the house carrying brown paper bags and clear plastic bags and took them to vehicles parked outside.

Young said the bomb and arson truck carried devices that will aid in the search, but he didn't go into detail. Many bomb units carry X-ray equipment that can scan solid objects and reveal items hidden within. The Lee's Summit Bomb and Arson squad was called to the scene Wednesday evening to assist with the case.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a no-fly zone over the house, and authorities blocked off North Lister Avenue about 30 minutes before the search began.

Police officers asked media covering the story to move off the street where the house is located. Authorities restricted media access, FBI spokeswoman Bridgett Patton said, because agents were using a procedure involving dogs that they didn't want to be recorded. She declined to elaborate.

Patton said in a live interview with Lisa Benson the search was not fueled by any specific new tip, but investigators wanted to be sure they hadn't missed anything.

A no-fly zone extended for one nautical mile around the house and to an elevation of 1,500 feet.

During the search, a private tree trimmer knocked out power to the neighborhood. Electric crews had to work with police to gain access to the area to start repairs, because it was behind yellow police tape.

Lisa was 10 months old on Oct. 4 when her parents reported her missing. Her father, an electrician, said he returned home from a late shift to discover the lights on, a window tampered with, the front door unlocked and Lisa gone. Bradley and Lisa's two older brothers had been asleep elsewhere in the house. Bradley has admitted she drank heavily that night and may have blacked out.

Investigators have searched the home before, with Lisa’s parents’ permission, but never with a warrant. Young said Wednesday's warrant prevents anyone except those involved in the investigation from entering, meaning family members -- who have returned home from time to time to collect clothes and other belongings -- may not go back inside until the search is over. It wasn't immediately clear whether the search would resume Thursday.

"I don't know why a warrant is needed. They can go in and out any time," The parents’ attorney, Joe Tacopina, said. "They have had unfettered access because we want answers."

Tacopina says Bradley and Jeremy Irwin have remained cooperative and have nothing to hide, but police spokesman Steve Young says they haven’t submitted to questioning in the case since Oct. 8 , four days after Lisa disappeared.

He said the family hasn't been back to the house in the past couple of days because they don't want to interfere with the investigation.

Tacopina said Wednesday that he welcomed the search, but "we want this to be done in good faith, not to match some predetermined conclusion."

Police, FBI agents, officers from area law enforcement agencies and the Missouri National Guard, have already searched the family's home, neighborhood, nearby wooded areas, a landfill and abandoned homes. Police have refused to discuss any evidence gathered in the searches, saying only that they remain without a suspect.

Last weekend, detectives videotaped the inside and outside of the home and attempted to recreate a break-in scenario by climbing through a front window Lisa’s parents say had been tampered with.