LITTLE ROCK — With critical information and evidence slow in coming in the investigation into the killing of a father and his young daughter found burning in a pickup Dec. 12, Pulaski County sheriff ’s office Sgt. Mike Blain decided to try something different.
On Tuesday, 17 days after the bodies of 28-year-old Michael Palmer and his 1-year-old daughter, Hannah Grace Dowdie, were discovered in flames on a little-used dead-end road, sheriff’s office investigators set up checkpoints near the crime scene off East Dixon Road near Sweet Home and handed out nearly 1,000 fliers asking for tips and information about the deaths.
“It could be we get nothing,” Blain said, hands in his pockets against the chill. “It could be we get information we need and it takes us in a new direction from where we’re going right now. It could be we get information that tells us we need to sharpen our focus and are headed the right way already. We don’t know until we try.”
The sheriff’s office authorized some overtime to distribute the fliers Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Blain set up one checkpoint on Shamburger Lane just east of Interstate 530 and another farther east on East Dixon Road.
The checkpoints are an unusual tactic in a weeksold homicide case. The sheriff’s office uses them in abduction cases and to screen for drunken drivers, but rarely to hunt for information about a killing.
“We haven’t ruled anybody out 100 percent,” saidBlain. “If we had all the evidence and the information we needed, we’d have made an arrest already.”
Blain noted a reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads investigators to an arrest in the case and urged anyone with a tip to share - even anonymously - to call (501) 340-8477. Blain saidanother reward fund is being established as well.
The bodies of Palmer and his daughter were found burned beyond recognition Dec. 12 on Wilbern Road in anindustrial section of Pulaski County. Palmer’s body was in the bed of a GMC pickup, registered to him and stuck in the mud. His daughter’s body was found in the truck’s cab, in the passenger seat.
Investigators have declined to release the causes of death, arguing that making it public would harm their case.
“Trust me,” Blain said. “Somebody did this to these people. And we’re going to find out who that is.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/30/2009