BRIDGEWATER - There have been no further arrests but investigators are still working full tilt to solve the murder of 12-year-old Karissa Boudreau.

 RCMP spokesman Sgt. Mark Gallagher says more than 20 officers from the RCMP and Bridgewater Police Service continue to probe the case daily.

 "They're putting in as many hours as they did from the onset, which is anywhere between 16- and 18-hour days. They've certainly put a lot of effort into this," Sgt. Gallagher said Friday.

 Investigators continue to chase down leads in the case and are following up on a lot of information received from the public following the February 14 announcement that Karissa's death is being treated as a homicide.

 Police and Lunenburg County Ground Search and Rescue volunteers returned to the site where Karissa's body was found February 19, the same day as the girl's funeral. They spent several hours combing the riverbank just outside town limits below the old Irving Oil parking lot.

 "They revisited the area because certainly there had been a lot of snow that melted, to see if there was any possibility they may have missed something. There was nothing that was located at the time," Sgt. Gallagher said Friday.

 The Bridgewater girl was reported missing by her mother on January 27. For two weeks, a full-scale missing person investigation - which included ground search and rescue volunteers, a helicopter, RCMP divers and a public awareness campaign - turned up no trace of Karissa.

 Then on February 9, a passerby discovered the girl's body covered in snow between the river and Highway 331 in Conquerall Bank. Five days later, Bridgewater Police and the RCMP held a joint news conference to confirm that it was Karissa and to announce that the little girl had been murdered.

 They've released few details, refusing to say how or when Karissa died, or if she died where she was found, in an effort to protect their investigation.

 Police arrested two Bridgewater residents and held them for questioning for 24 hours, but released them on February 15 without laying charges. They've refused to identify the pair, but confirm that they knew Karissa and remain the only suspects in her killing.

 The police have repeatedly said that they believe the girl's death was an isolated incident and residents should have no fear that it was a random killing.

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 Police executed several search warrants on February 14 and 15. There have been reports that at least one was at Jubilee Apartments, where Karissa lived with her mother, Penny Boudreau, and her mother's boyfriend, Vernon MacCumber.

 Two vehicles seized as part of the investigation on February 14 and 15 have since been released to the owners.

 Police continue to ask anyone who may have information pertaining to the case to contact them.

posted on 02/26/08