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Still searching for boy, answers
By LEON M. TUCKER and CHRISTINA HEADRICK © St. Petersburg Times, published September 19, 2000
Clearwater police have impounded his mother's car, a move officials said is routinely done to preserve potential evidence. Police wouldn't comment on what, if anything, they found there.
Hackett, 29, is not the focus of the investigation, department spokesman Wayne Shelor said. He said investigators have neither proven nor disproven her story. "We have spoken to the mother many times about the disappearance of her child. We haven't discounted what she has told us," he said. "We found nothing that disproves what she's saying. I don't know if (investigators) are working to confirm it. They've worked with her and found no reason to discount it." He called the case "unique and unprecedented." Aside from reading a brief statement to reporters last Wednesday, Hackett hasn't spoken publicly about the case. She maintained her silence Monday. Denal Donnelly, one of her sisters, said Hackett thinks someone snatched Zachary from the apartment in the 15 minutes Hackett says she was walking. "She swears up and down that her suspicions are correct, that somebody took him," Donnelly, 37, said. She said Hackett's story of being up and walking well before dawn is plausible. "She has always been a night owl," Donnelly said. "I think it'll turn me around and it will really surprise me if Leah's suspicions turn out to be a dead-end." Donnelly said Hackett has been a wonderful mother who encouraged Zach's artistic creativity and displayed the boy's artwork throughout her apartment. Investigators have asked the nationally televised show America's Most Wanted for help. Shelor said he hopes the show, which will air a segment on the missing boy at 9 p.m. Saturday on Fox, will turn up clues. Police also have asked the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, Manatee County Sheriff's Office, Tampa police, Clearwater Fire Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigations for help locating the missing child. "We've reached out to all sorts of other agencies for guidance, assistance and advice, including the FBI," Shelor said. "We have asked them for advice on how to locate a missing child." Police said there was no sign of a struggle in the apartment, and none of the boy's belongings are missing. Investigators have worked around the clock, covering hundreds of acres of woods, knocking on doors and searching the waterways. But they have turned up very few leads, Shelor said. "We have an 8-year-old child who had disappeared with no trace," Shelor said. "That's never happened before. That's what's paramount to us and that's what's so frustrating." Zachary's biological father has not been involved in the boy's upbringing and is not a suspect, Shelor said. At the Savannah Trace apartments Monday, a yellow ribbon still clung to the oak tree near Hackett's apartment No. 634. Signs with pleas from Zach's family hung across the balcony. One poster said "MISSING" with Zach's picture underneath. Another was a white kitchen garbage bag with "Bring Zack Home" printed on it with a black marker. Monday, however, passed with little news. The family has had less and less contact with reporters and police, said Leah Hackett's mother, Carole Bernhardt. She said the family is frustrated and weary after waiting for a break in the case. "No one is putting his picture out anywhere now," said Bernhardt, 59. "But how else will they find him if they don't keep getting his picture out?" Donnelly said the family still is worrying about Zach. She said she wondered over the stormy weekend: Is he somewhere scared or vulnerable to wind and rain? All of the family members have been interviewed by law enforcement officials, Donnelly and Bernhardt said. Donnelly said the officials asked them not to discuss what they talked about. Monday night, Donnelly was planning to drive from her home in Palm Bay down to Vero Beach and some other nearby towns, putting up fliers at gas stations and other stores along the way. "It may be a false hope, but it keeps me going," she said.
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