<BR>Inquiry in missing child case scaled back<BR>The five detectives who have worked full time on Zach Bernhardt's case since <BR>November 2000 will work other cases as they wait for new leads.<BR>By CHRIS TISCH<P>© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2002<P><BR>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>The five detectives who have worked full time on Zach Bernhardt's case since <BR>November 2000 will work other cases as they wait for new leads.<BR>CLEARWATER -- With leads on the 18-month old disappearance of Zach Bernhardt <BR>slowing to a trickle, police have decided the five detectives assigned to <BR>the case will no longer investigate the boy's vanishing full time.<P>Those detectives now will investigate other crimes, as well, though Zach's <BR>Sept. 11, 2000, disappearance will remain a high priority in their caseload. <BR>The investigators say they will quickly jump on any new leads that develop.<P>"If that phone rings tomorrow, we're on a plane, on a train, in a car, doing <BR>what has to be done," said Detective Joseph Egger.<P>Zach was 8 years old when he vanished from his mother's apartment at <BR>Savannah Trace, 2690 Drew St. There have been no confirmed reports of anyone <BR>seeing him since. There also was no sign of a crime, so detectives don't <BR>know if he was taken or if he ran away. They also don't know if he's alive <BR>or dead.<P>"The whole thing is very frustrating," said Detective Stephen Bohling. "It <BR>sticks with you every day. But we're fighters, and we're not going to give <BR>up. Our goal is to bring him back to his family."<P>Egger, Bohling and three other detectives have been investigating the case <BR>fulltime since November 2000. They were part of a second group of <BR>investigators assigned to the case to review what an initial group of <BR>detectives had uncovered.<P>Egger and Bohling, both fathers of young boys about Zach's age, said they <BR>devoted themselves to the investigation.<P>That's why Zach's grandmother, Carole Bernhardt, said she's not upset to <BR>hear the detectives will be taken off the investigation full time. She knows <BR>they will chase any promising lead.<P>"Whenever something comes in on Zach, they drop what they're doing and work <BR>on Zach," she said. "And as long as they do that, it's fine. There's no <BR>failure whatsoever. If someone called in today with a clue, they'd still be <BR>looking.<P>"They know Zach as well as we do by now," she added. "I think they ate, <BR>drank and slept Zachary for a long time."<P>Zach's mother, Leah Hackett, said she went for a walk about 4 a.m. the day <BR>of the disappearance. When she returned 15 minutes later, Zach was gone, she <BR>told police.<P>But Egger said he thinks she knows more. He declined to go into specifics as <BR>to why he believes that, or why she might be holding back.<P>"I feel she has more information about the case, yes," he said.<P>Hackett has since moved to North Carolina, married and divorced. She remains <BR>in North Carolina, but stays in touch with her family here, Carole Bernhardt <BR>said.<P>Investigators also devoted much time to a suspect named Kevin Jalbert, a <BR>Citrus County man who had boasted to a friend of abducting and murdering a <BR>child in Clearwater.<P>When detectives heard of Jalbert's claims, they got an undercover detective <BR>close to him. Jalbert then tried to solicit the detective to help him <BR>abduct, murder and rape a child in Clearwater, police said.<P>Jalbert was arrested on a murder solicitation charge. He is awaiting trial. <BR>His lawyer says Jalbert made the statements because he was living in a <BR>fantasy world, not because he abducted Zach.<P>But Bohling said detectives are still interested in Jalbert. "He has not <BR>been 100 percent eliminated as a suspect," he said.<P>Detectives also have chased almost 1,000 other leads. The paperwork <BR>generated by the investigation has filled 39 binders. Each is 6-inches <BR>thick. They hold tens of thousands of sheets of paper combined.<P>Leads have taken detectives to Washington, Colorado, Pennsylvania and other <BR>states.<P>Police spokesman Wayne Shelor said it's the most intensive investigation in <BR>Clearwater history. But the leads aren't coming in like they once did.<P>"What we've reached here is a point of diminishing returns," Shelor said. <BR>"Zach is a priority. They've become, in the last 18 months, quite devoted to <BR>this young man."<P>Said Egger: "Steve and I really take this to heart. To reunite the family <BR>was, and continues to be, our paramount goal."<P>-- Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com.<P><P>