Julia Cowley

And there's a whole bunch of determining factors when that comes in.

But that doesn't mean we're not supporting them.

It doesn't mean they're not supporting us.

I don't think in a case like this particular one or any other ones where you have all the different agencies, you can just do it all alone.

The FBI, we need the state and locals.

And on occasion, in fact, we probably need them more sometimes than they need us.

But on occasion, when they have a big case or where they have things where it does potentially cross state lines or there's, you know, wire fraud or just things that the FBI is good at and we have expertise and technology in, let's say, digital evidence and other types of evidence that they may be dealing with in a specific case.

then we will continue to provide that assistance no matter which way it's going to go, whether it's going to be prosecuted locally, whether it's going to be prosecuted federally.

And so I can't say there's just at one point where we decide we're taking over.

That's really just not how it works.

It's more of an agreement.

This is the best course of action based on what we're learning about how this crime was committed.

Well, obviously we have a missing person and at some point, and it depends on, can depend on the location as well.

But at some point when somebody is gone long enough and you don't know where they are, there can be a presumed that they've crossed state lines.

And so the FBI does have jurisdiction in that.

And so we do assume that, especially if it involves a child and they've been gone for a few hours.

I mean, you know, depending on where you live, you could be 10 minutes from the border.

So that could be crossing state lines much sooner than in another state where maybe you're in the middle of the state and it's a couple hours to the border.

So that would be a time to get involved.

If you have communications, cell phone data, digital evidence that you're analyzing, clearly this has some elements of that in terms of potential communications being sent, whether or not they're related, that remains to be determined or related to the original crime that remains to be determined.