Search for missing girl becomes search for murder suspect\nCROTHERSVILLE, Ind. -- The search for the killer of a 10-year-old girl continued Tuesday as investigators fanned out from a command post at the southern Indiana town's fire station to chase leads.\nHundreds of people had phoned police to report seeing men resembling a composite drawing of a suspect or white pickup trucks they thought might be the one in which Katlyn "Katie" Collman last was seen riding, state police Sgt. Jerry Goodin said.\n"We're just trying to run everything down," said Goodin.\nMost of the leads Tuesday were focused around Jackson County, he said.\nGoodin said it could be up to two weeks before the results of a Monday autopsy were released.\nThe child's death was the first homicide in 25 years in the town of about 1,500 people about 40 miles north of Louisville, Ky. Residents reacted with fear and outrage as the search for the killer supplanted the search for the girl.\nA local computer store printed T-shirts with Katie's face on the front and a composite portrait of the suspect on the back above a grim message: "We will find you next."\nProceeds from shirt sales went to help pay for the search and for the funeral, which was set for Sunday at the school.\n"We need to stop this guy," said Redneck Computers owner Eddie Hodge, 39, who designed the shirt. "He needs to be taken off the streets."\nKatie, a fourth-grader at Crothersville Elementary, was last seen walking from a store about three blocks from her home after buying toilet paper Jan. 22, investigators said.\nState police issued a statewide Amber Alert Thursday.\nA state trooper found the girl's body in a stream Sunday in a wooded area about a quarter of a mile off Interstate 65 about 15 miles north of Crothersville.\nA $10,000 reward for information in the case has been offered.\nThe driver was described as in his late teens or early 20s, white and very thin, 5-foot-9 to 6-foot-1, with short, dark hair. He was said to be driving a white, late-1980s or early-1990s Ford F-150 pickup.
Defense considering final appeal for \nconvicted murderer\nEVANSVILLE, Ind. -- A defense attorney is considering a final appeal to prevent the execution of a man convicted 23 years ago of killing an Evansville couple and their two children.\nDonald Ray Wallace, 47, has sought to end efforts to block his execution, which the state Supreme Court on Monday set for March 10. The setting of the execution date followed a decision this month by the high court to reject appeals of Wallace's sentence for the fourth time .\nThe execution order has long been awaited by Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco, who as young deputy prosecutor worked to put Wallace on death row.\n"Over the last year, it's become more of a reality to me that this execution was finally going to happen," Levco said. "But it's been so long, it's still hard to believe."\nWallace was convicted in 1982 of shooting to death Patrick Gilligan; his wife, Theresa; their 5-year-old daughter, Lisa; and their 4-year-old son, Gregory. Authorities said the Gilligans were killed in January 1980 after surprising Wallace as he burglarized their home.\nDefense attorney Sarah Nagy said Tuesday that she was researching a possible appeal based on the grounds that too much time had elapsed for Wallace to be rightfully executed.\n"The argument is that to hold someone that long and then take his life is cruel and unusual punishment," she said. "It's been too long; he's been rehabilitated."\nNagy said she was discussing an appeal with Wallace but would not file a motion without his permission.\nIf Wallace refused to consent and Nagy believed the appeal would prevent his death, she said she would seek ethical guidance from the state Supreme Court.\n"I have an ethical duty to do everything I can to save his life," Nagy said. "On the other hand, he is capable at this point of making his own decisions."\nWallace can still ask Gov. Mitch Daniels for clemency. But in letters written to the Evansville Courier & Press over the last several months, Wallace said he has told his attorneys to not seek clemency.
