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Search For Missing Woman Ongoing At S. Tampa Home

News Channel 8 photo by ERIC HAUSMANN

Temple Terrace and Tampa police, along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, are at a South Tampa looking for evidence into the disappearance of Sandra Hamby Prince.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 11, 2008

Updated: 01/11/2008 04:43 pm

Photo Gallery: Digging At South Tampa Home

Detectives Spend 2nd Day Searching For Traces Of Missing Woman
By VALERIE KALFRIN
TAMPA - For the second day in a row and the second time in three months, Temple Terrace police searched a South Tampa home for evidence in the disappearance of a social worker.

Sandra Hamby Prince was 59 when she was reported missing in January 2006. Blood found in the trunk of her car and in the bedroom of her Temple Terrace home has led police to think she was killed, according to an initial search warrant filed last year.

Today, a crime scene unit from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and homicide detectives from Tampa police joined Temple Terrace investigators inside a house at 3908 W. Vasconia St. This is the same house where Temple Terrace police excavated the back yard in October.

Temple Terrace police spokesman Mike Dunn said results from the October search gave police probable cause to obtain another search warrant for the property on Wednesday.

The house was built by Prince's boyfriend, Earl Pippin III, at the time she disappeared. Pippin, a general contractor who was married when he had a relationship with Prince, is the sole beneficiary of her $3.6 million estate, police said.

His attorney, Paul Sisco, has said there is no evidence linking Pippin to Prince's disappearance.

Dunn said detectives are "searching for any kind of evidence they can locate, inside and outside."

He did not know how long the search would last.

Tampa police detectives are there as a matter of protocol because the investigation is in their jurisdiction, Dunn said.

Tampa police spokesman Cpl. Jared Douds agreed. "Should anything be found, they want to make sure there are no problems with admissibility," he said.

The Tampa detectives first arrived at the house wearing ties, slacks and button-down shirts, then left and returned in more casual clothing. One wore a department polo shirt. Another wore scrubs, and one wore a dark-blue police jumpsuit.

The detectives and crime-scene investigators occasionally left the house to retrieve a tool kit or other item from their vehicles. They did not carry out any items in envelopes, boxes or bags. They did not speak to reporters.

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

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