OAK HARBOR – The search for Elaine Sepulveda ended with a hunch and a knock on the right door.
Less than a week after arriving in Oak Harbor, two nationally known experts in finding missing children turned up the answers no one else had.
Bob Walcutt from the Laura Recovery Center of Texas and Brad Dennis of Florida from Klaaskids Foundation joined the search for Elaine two months after she was reported missing.
During their investigation, police had come within yards of where Elaine’s body was found. Officers discovered the remains of the teenager Friday in the back yard of her boyfriend’s grandparents’ house, just blocks from her home.
Investigators got the break they needed when Walcutt and Dennis got permission to search a compost heap at the edge of the yard with dogs used to find cadavers.
“They came thousands of miles, and all they had to do was knock on that door,” said Mary Jimenez, Elaine’s mother. “We give them all the credit.”
Elaine, 15, was last seen Nov. 6, after she apparently sneaked out of her Oak Harbor home to meet her boyfriend, James Sanders. She’d told friends she was pregnant with his child.
Sanders, 18, was arrested Friday in connection with Elaine’s murder. Her body was found hours later.
The cause of her death is under investigation by the Island County Coroner’s Office.
Elaine’s family called in Walcutt and Dennis for a massive three-day search set to start within hours of when her body was found.
Four previous searches of the thick woods and beaches near Elaine’s home turned up nothing. Family and friends posted flyers with her picture from Oak Harbor to Texas, where Elaine’s father lived.
“They felt they were beginning to go down a dead-end road with no hope in sight,” Dennis said. “We wanted to provide them some hope by showing we cared and the community cared.”
The two men travel throughout the country lending their expertise for free.
Dennis, a 17-year veteran, helped search for Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old California girl kidnapped and murdered in 1993. The Klaaskids Foundation was created in her memory.
Walcutt has been searching for missing children for 12 years. He helped in the search for 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her Utah home in 2003 and found alive nine months later.
“No family needs to go through the rest of their lives searching,” Walcutt said.
The men learned about the compost pile from Elaine’s family and police.
“We talked to a couple of people who saw (Sanders) out there,” Walcutt said. “It puzzled me why no one else had taken a look at it. For an 18-year-old boy to be messing with a compost pile, well it’s just unlikely.”
Neighbors living near Sanders’ grandfather reported that the teen would occasionally mow and rake the lawn there.
The men knocked on the grandfather’s door Thursday, but were turned away by Sanders’ grandmother, Walcutt said.
“We didn’t go there with suspicion in our minds,” Dennis said. “As search and rescuers, we were concentrating on the area (Elaine) was last seen at.”
Walcutt left his business card. He later heard from police that Sanders’ grandfather agreed to the search.
“He didn’t believe his grandson had anything to do with” Elaine’s disappearance, Dennis said. “He mentioned he’d talked with his grandson in the past.”
After Sanders’ grandfather gave permission, he spoke with him again about Elaine.
“He did the toughest thing in the world and asked (Sanders). He knew we were coming back in the morning with the dogs,” Walcutt said.
This time, Sanders allegedly told his grandfather he’d accidentally killed Elaine on Nov. 6, the day she was reported missing. Sanders reportedly told his grandfather he’d knocked her to the ground at a church behind his grandfather’s house, court documents say.
The grandfather told police Sanders allegedly admitted burying Elaine in the compost pile.
The area didn’t look as if it had been disturbed, Walcutt said, except for a few new piles of leaves. Underneath the pile, Oak Harbor police found the 4-foot-11 inch teenager curled into a fetal position.
“The biggest catalyst behind Elaine’s discovery was Elaine’s family themselves,” Dennis said. “They never gave up.”
He and Walcutt also credited Oak Harbor police for their investigative work.
“Most law enforcement agencies don’t have the manpower to stop everything else,” Walcutt said. “A little extra help from us can be very helpful.”
Mary and Juan Jimenez feared years would pass without finding Elaine.
“The peace is that we found her,” said Juan Jimenez, Elaine’s stepfather. “That’s what we were focused on.”
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
