BIRMINGHAM, Mich. – The search for a baby missing from west Michigan since last summer led FBI agents to a neighborhood in Birmingham.
Katherine Phillips was 4-months-old when she disappeared in Ludington in June of 2011. Kate had been living with her mother, Ariel Courtland, but was last seen with her father, 22-year-old Sean Phillips. Despite intense searches in the area around Ludington, Kate remains missing.
Phillips was charged and put on trial for false imprisonment. Deliberations began Thursday evening and the jury will continue on Friday. Wood TV reports the jury said they had not reached a verdict about 7:40 Thursday and called it a day.
An FBI agent testified agents who studied a website listing couples seeking to adopt found Phillips had looked at the profile of a couple living in Birmingham.
Agents visited that Birmingham neighborhood. One neighbor they talked with was Stephanie Vanhellmont.
"They came and knocked on my door and asked me questions about my neighbors, if I had seen any children coming out of the house," Vanhellmont said.
Local 4 learned agents visited the home of the couple listed on the website and the woman living there could not recognize photographs of Baby Kate, Ariel Courtland or Sean Phillips.
The trail of Sean Phillips is approaching its end. The prosecution rested its case Thursday morning. After defense attorneys presented witnesses, closing arguments were made and the judge instructed jurors.