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Search For Traces Of Woman Carries Into Weekend

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 12, 2008

TAMPA - For the second day in a row and the second time in three months, Temple Terrace police searched a South Tampa home Friday 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.

On Friday, a crime scene unit from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and homicide detectives from the Tampa Police Department joined Temple Terrace investigators inside a Tampa house at 3908 W. Vasconia St., where Temple Terrace police excavated the backyard 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 Wednesday.

The house was being 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. Investigators intended to resume the search today.

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

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

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 the third 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, and they did not speak to reporters.

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

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