LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Little Rock police say they found “insufficient evidence” that officers mistreated the family of a slain teen while investigating her disappearance.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that police sent an Aug. 28 letter to Laurie Jernigan, whose daughter Ebby Steppach was 18 when she disappeared in 2015. The letter says the department can’t prove that officers “were rude and unprofessional” to Jernigan.
Jernigan filed a complaint Feb. 12 against three officers, none of whom are named in the department’s internal investigation notice. Jernigan alleges the officers sent threatening texts, yelled during questioning and told her she wouldn’t be updated on the case anymore.
Police found Steppach’s remains in a drainage pipe at a Little Rock park in May. The department declined to comment on the case being investigated as a homicide.