Attorney, Family Of Missing Missouri Baby Cut Ties

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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- The family of a missing Missouri baby continued to make news Friday, cutting ties with its attorney hours after canceling a police interview with the girl's two half-brothers.
Cyndy Short, the attorney who had been speaking for the family of 11-month-old Lisa Irwin, is no longer working with the family, her Kansas City, Missouri, law firm announced Friday in a statement. There was no immediate indication as to who, if anyone, will represent the family instead.
Meanwhile, Kansas City Police Captain Steve Young said late Thursday that the Irwin family's lawyer -- at that point, presumed to be Short -- had canceled a police interview with the girl's two older brothers.
The boys, ages 8 and 6, were in the family's Kansas City home when the girl was reported missing on October 4. They were previously interviewed just after she disappeared, both for less than an hour, Kansas City police Capt. Steve Young said.
The "nonconfrontational" re-interview planned for Friday would have been conducted by a child services specialist without a police officer in the room, according to Young.
"(It's) not an interrogation," he said. "They are kids, after all."
It was unclear whether the boys' interviews will be rescheduled.
Authorities have also said they are seeking tests on the boys, in order to eliminate them from all the DNA found in the home during a search.
Police have said the infant's parents, Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, will not submit to separate interviews. But Short, speaking earlier as the couple's attorney, disputed that account.
"Being questioned separately is not the issue," Short said. She said the couple has been cooperative and has been interviewed separately as well as together. They don't mind being interviewed separately as long as the detectives are fair, open-minded and nonaccusatory, she said.
Lisa was reported missing about 4 a.m. October 4, after her father arrived home from work to find the door unlocked, the lights on and a window tampered with. The girl's mother said she last saw Lisa at 6:40 p.m. the previous day.
A cadaver dog searching the family's Kansas City home indicated a positive "hit" for the scent of a body, police said.
On that information, Short said law enforcement typically begins such investigations inside the home, and then, if warranted, the inquiry moves outside the family.
"We don't know exactly what happened here, so we need to keep broadening the investigation," she said.
CNN's Jim Spellman and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.
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