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Lead Investigator In Heeringa Case: “This Is Personal”

Posted at 7:44 PM, May 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-03 21:54:43-04

NORTON SHORES, Mich.– Fox 17 sat down with the lead investigator in the Jessica Heeringa case. He’s been putting in 18 to 20 hour days, working around the clock to bring Jessica home.

Detective Sergeant Michael Kasher has been with the Norton Shores Police Department for 22 years now. “You see it in New York or you see it in LA that’s what this is. I would never imagine in 20 years we would ever be thrust into this type of situation in Norton Shores.”

Kasher says from the beginning they took this case seriously. “You’re trying to find out whats their normal routine is. How did this happen, how do we make a connection to the person or persons who have done this? Where is a link that is a common denominator?”

After a week of non-stop investigating, this is more than just a routine case for Kasher and his team. It’s personal. “You don’t go home and sleep and forget. You are lucky you get a couple of hours of sleep to get yourself ready, mentally ready, picked up and then get in here get your routine going, get your guys going.”

With each tip, each lead, comes a new sense of hope. The hard part not having it be the break in the case they’re looking for.

“So you come crashing down again to start building up again so that’s when you start talking about that roller coaster. “I just know I have a responsibility to everybody and the responsibility is to bring her home, bring her home safe.”

Something everyone in this community is praying for, “there’s no forgetting this one, it doesn’t end until it ends.”

Sergeant Kasher says their goal is of course to bring Jessica home but it’s also to build a case against whoever is responsible and prosecute them.