by Seamus McGraw

(Continued)

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But the lingering mystery over the young woman's whereabouts has fueled intense local and national interest. In just the past few days, several national television news programs, including NBC's "Dateline," have compiled reports on the probe.

And in recent weeks, family members have also drawn support from criminology professor Maurice Godwin, a professor who specializes in geographic profiling, and have turned to psychics, including Court TV's psychic profiler Carla Baron.

Maurice Godwin

Based in part on information provided by them, and on tips from the public, teams of searchers last week scoured some ponds and swamps in the region, Gattis said. Divers probed two sections of a murky 32-foot deep pond that matched a description given to them by Baron, and cadaver dogs were also deployed. "That pond does fit some of the characteristics that Carla had talked to us about," Gattis said. "She said we wouldn't find Tara there, but we may find some clues." While data from that search is still being analyzed and has yet to yield any solid clues, Gattis said there was cause for further investigation. "We had dog alerts on one pond, and we're still in the process of trying to find out what the dogs hit on," Gattis said. "We're sending some water samples off to see if there's any chemicals that might have made the dogs hit."

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