Private services were held in Manteca at the same time a sheriff's dive team is going through the water at a pond in Valley Springs in Calaveras County. The pond is located just a quarter-of-a-mile downhill from the Fowler's home. A team of FBI agents also continued their investigation at the Fowler's home and seemed to be removing almost everything from that house.
While funeral services were underway for 8-year-old Leila, investigators remained busy near the home where she was killed 10 days ago.
Divers from the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department spent much of the day searching a pond just down the hill from Leila's Valley Springs home, presumably for evidence or even a murder weapon. At different intervals, an inflatable boat would go back and forth from the dive site to waiting trailers in support of the effort.
In the meantime, up the hill at the house where Leila was killed, about a dozen FBI agents continued to process the crime scene. They could be seen carrying evidence bags in and out of the home to a waiting moving van. At one point, they removed a vacuum cleaner and later, and later a large-flat-screen television set. Meantime, those who live in the small town are growing restless, given the lack of an arrest in a murder that has shocked everyone here.
"We don't lock our doors up here," said one resident. "I've got a bat in one hand and my Taser in another."
"I'd like to see him hung up," said Valley Springs resident Tony Glenn, who minced no words when telling us what he thought should be done to the person who killed such a young child. "I can't think of anybody around here who would do something like that to tell you the truth about it. People around here are pretty easy going, pretty friendly people."
ABC7 News was told the dive team will be back first thing on Wednesday morning. Special dogs, flown in from Washington D.C., were supposed to arrive on Tuesday, but ABC7 News crews did not see them. Sheriff's crews canceled their daily briefing, perhaps out of respect for the funeral service.
