PORT ANGELES — Police served two search warrants in the city in their investigation into how 15-year-old Melissa Leigh Carter died.
Her body was found Sunday along a path near the Waterfront Trail.
Sites of the searches included an abandoned house where transients are known to stay, Police Chief Tom Riepe said.
Police would not disclose the address of the house or the site of the other search, and they declined to say where they think the girl had died.
The searches “collected much new evidence,”‘ Riepe said, “and a great deal of forensic and other investigative work still needs to be done.”
Police also interviewed friends and acquaintances of Carter on Wednesday.
“The department is optimistic that the case will be solved,” Riepe said.
It may be three to four weeks, however, before investigators know the precise cause of Carter’s death.
Toxicological tests
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said it might take that long to complete toxicological tests on samples taken during an autopsy of the teenager on Monday.
“It’s possible that we would get it sooner,” Kelly said of the toxicology report, but she wasn’t optimistic.
The prosecuting attorney doubles as coroner.
The autopsy was performed at Olympic Medical Center by a forensic pathologist from Seattle.
Riepe said lack of a toxicological report would not hinder the investigation, which police were treating as a homicide.
The Police Department still is asking anyone who knew Carter or has any information about the case to call them at 360-452-4545.
