Dozens of FBI agents arrived to search the home where the mother of Baby Lisa is staying - just hours after she admitted she was blackout drunk the night her daughter vanished.
Kansas City mother Deborah Bradley made the drinking admission in a tearful interview on NBC's 'Today' on Monday morning. Ms Bradley also said she believes she will be arrested over the disappearance of Lisa Irwin, who was 10-months-old when she was reported missing in the early hours of October 4.
Hours after the sit-down, search dogs were combing over a family property where Ms Bradley and her fiancé, Jeremy Irwin, have stayed throughout the investigation.
Agents closed the 5200 block of North Walrond to media and would not say what they were searching for, reports FOX 4.
Agents were also seen searching an area along the Buckeye Greenway park with shovels.
In another interview with People magazine, Bradley had said she bought boxed wine hours before Lisa disappeared and that 'it's a possibility' that she drank to the point of blacking out.
Ms Bradley has claimed the girl was swiped from her crib in the dead of night as her mother and two brothers slept.
She maintained she did nothing to harm her child.
No, no... I don't think alcohol changes a person enough to do something like that,' she said in the television interview.
The mother also changed a key point in her story: She initially told authorities she last checked on Lisa at 10:30pm, but she told NBC she actually last saw Lisa when she put her to bed at 6:40pm. She gave no explanation for the modified times.
Meanwhile Joe Tacopina told reporters Monday that he had been hired to represent Jeremy Irwin, the baby's father, and Ms Bradley.
His past clients include Joran Van der Sloot, suspected in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba, rapper Foxy Brown when she 'attacked' a salon worker, Sopranos actor-turned-killer Lillo Brancato, and Ken Moreno, one of the New York police officers recently acquitted of rape.
Tacopina praised Kansas City police for their investigation but insisted the parents have 'nothing to hide.
On Sunday, military police from the Missouri National Guard joined FBI agents and officers from several police and sheriff's departments from nearby communities in the search for Lisa in a large wooded area near the family's home.
Ms Bradley and Mr Irwin, have told authorities that he arrived home from a night shift to find the front door unlocked, the house lights on, a window tampered with and the baby gone.
Ms Bradley and their two sons were asleep elsewhere in the home.
Authorities have already searched the family's neighbourhood, nearby wooded areas, a landfill and abandoned homes. Police have said they have no suspects or major leads.
Bradley said police accused her of killing Lisa and that she believes she will be arrested.
I was the last one with her,' she said. 'That's kind of a fear that I have.'
She said is scared that her arrest would precipitate an end to the search for her missing baby.
If they arrest me, people are going to stop looking for her and I'll never know what happened,' Bradley said.
She also said her two sons, aged 6 and 8, say they heard noises the night Lisa disappeared, although she doesn't know if they heard noises before they went to sleep or later in the night and she doesn't want them to be involved in the investigation.
I have not sat down and talked to them about it, specifically to not have to put them through anything else,' she said.
A local handyman was questioned over the weekend in connection with the child's disappearance.
Johnny Tanko was seen in the neighbourhood on the night ten-month-old Lisa Irwin was reported missing from her crib at her parents' Kansas City home.
The odd job man, known locally as 'Jersey' was arrested and questioned. He is not being considered a suspect.
Previously, in an attempt to keep the case in the public eye, the family had decided to reveal unseen home videos of the baby aged only three months.
A mystery donor has offered a $100,000 reward for the return of baby Lisa or the conviction of anyone involved in her going missing.
In the latest videos released Friday, the baby is shown making happy sounds, eating and playing in a walker while her mother coos to her, calling her ‘Pumpkin Pie’.
Police have been sweeping woodland in a desperate attempt to find any clues relating to her disappearance.
Up to 30 detectives are working the case.
They have followed up on more than 500 tips, including at least one report of suspicions about a couple with a child near Lisa's age.
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