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Anthropologist Has Key Role In Hunt For Body

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2007

Updated: 10/18/2007 02:59 pm

Video: Day Two Of Digging | Photos

TAMPA - Investigators searching for evidence in the disappearance of a Temple Terrace woman have enlisted the help of local forensic anthropologists in their excavation of a South Tampa yard.

Erin Kimmerle, a University of South Florida anthropology professor, said Thursday she was helping police search the yard at 3908 W. Vasconia St. for any indication of human remains.

Temple Terrace police obtained a search warrant Wednesday for the house in connection with the disappearance of Sandra Hamby Price. Prince was a drug counselor who helped found the Agency on Community Treatment Services in Tampa in 1978. She was 59 when she was reported missing Jan. 3, 2006.

The house, which is being rented, was constructed by Prince's longtime boyfriend, Earl C. Pippin III, according to a Tampa building permit. Police say he is a "person of interest" in the investigation. His attorney says Pippin has no involvement in her disappearance.

Investigators and workers from ATI Drilling of Tampa expect to dig under the house at least through Friday afternoon and perhaps through the weekend, police spokesman Mike Dunn said. The workers were collecting soil samples for analysis by USF and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The digging will not continue past 6 p.m., so as not to disturb neighbors, Dunn said. "We do plan to restore the house to its original condition," he said.

Police offered renters at the house hotel accommodations for the duration of the search, but they declined, Dunn said.

The phone number at the house is unlisted. A woman pulling out of the driveway moved the crime-scene tape to accommodate her vehicle but did not speak to reporters.

Kimmerle could not comment on specifics of the search but said in general she sets up a grid and methodically searches an entire area, looking for signs that soil has been disturbed or for changes in its chemical composition, such as its acidity.

"Every case is unique," she said. "Either we find what we're looking for or we feel pretty confident in ruling it out. But nothing is 100 percent."

This is the second time Kimmerle has assisted law enforcement in recent months. She said she helped the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in September with the excavation of a missing Seffner woman's remains at a construction site.

"It's very meticulous and slow," she said of her work.

Dunn said police have fielded 142 tips in their investigation since Prince vanished. They have searched the Vasconia Street property previously with ground-penetrating radar and cadaver-detecting dogs, without finding any remains, he said.

They also have searched property that Pippin co-owned with Prince at Lake Panasoffkee in Sumter County with dogs and radar, he said. Police divers have searched the lake, he said.

Dunn would not say whether a specific tip led to the search warrant in South Tampa. "Each one kind of builds on the other," he said.

Wednesday, Pippin's attorney, Paul Sisco, said Pippin had passed a polygraph test regarding Prince's disappearance.

Thursday, Dunn said that test was not administered by police. Pippin has declined to take a police polygraph or cooperate with police since March 2006, Dunn said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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