Cops: Jeremy Irwin & Deborah Bradley, parents of missing baby Lisa Irwin, won't interview separately

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CNN) - The attorney for the parents of a missing Missouri toddler will hold a news conference Thursday as police continue their search for the 11-month-old girl.

The news conference comes a day after Kansas City police said the missing girl's parents declined to be interviewed separately by authorities.

The couple's attorney disputed the police account and said Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, parents of 11-month-old Lisa Irwin, are not opposed to separate interviews. But they will not do what police requested, an unrestricted interview with no attorneys present, the attorney said.

"Being questioned separately is not the issue," said attorney Cyndy Short. She said the couple has been cooperative and has previously been interviewed separately as well as together. They don't mind being interviewed separately as long as the detectives are fair, open-minded and nonaccusatory, she said.

Lisa was reported missing about 4 a.m. October 4, after her father, Jeremy Irwin, arrived home from work to find the door unlocked, the lights on and a window tampered with. The girl's mother, Deborah Bradley, said she last saw Lisa at 6:40 p.m. the night before.

Kansas City police Capt. Steve Young said Tuesday investigators had planned to conduct the separate parent interviews, but said Wednesday the couple had declined.

Young said he did not dispute reports that the family had cooperated and answered questions, but the police department detectives still had unanswered questions.

Meanwhile, Lisa's half-brothers, who were in the family's home the night she disappeared, will be re-interviewed by authorities on Friday, Kansas City police said.

The boys will be interviewed by a "child services specialist trained to interview kids," Young said. The interview will be nonconfrontational, he said, and a police officer won't be in the room.

"Not an interrogation," he said. "They are kids, after all."

The boys are 8 and 6, Short said. Young said they were previously interviewed just after Lisa disappeared, both for under an hour.

Details were being worked out for a re-interview of the boys, Short said.

Police also said they are seeking DNA tests on the boys in order to eliminate them from all the DNA found in the home during a police search.

A cadaver dog searching the family's Kansas City home indicated a positive "hit" for the scent of a body, according to documents released Friday.

On that information, Short said that law enforcement typically begins such investigations inside the home, then if warranted the probe moves outside the family.

"We don't know exactly what happened here, so we need to keep broadening the investigation," she said.

Between 30 and 50 investigators, including police and FBI personnel, were involved in the search as of Tuesday, the Kansas City Police Department said. Some 900 tips had been received by investigators, the department said.

Short said Lisa's parents don't know what happened to their daughter.

"They don't know. I mean, someone came into their home in the middle of the night and took their beloved child away from them ... They are stumped," the attorney said.

She said the couple has provided a wealth of information to police, including the names of people who have had access to their home.