Nevaeh Buchanan

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office is still searching today for the driver of a green, box-style minivan who may have information in connection with the disappearance of 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan.

And because “numerous” tips have come in about green vans near the Charlotte Arms apartments when Nevaeh vanished the evening of May 24, investigators are desperate for the driver to come forward, Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield said.

“We’re asking that to help narrow down the number of tips,” he said today.

The van was parked at the Hollywood School playground behind the apartment complex between 6 and 7 p.m., about the time when Nevaeh disappeared while riding her scooter. Crutchfield said investigators would also like to talk to a mother and two small children in a silver minivan who were at the playground around the same time.

Meanwhile, tips seem to have slowed down in the missing girl’s case, still hovering around the 800 mark, Crutchfield said. Nevaeh’s mother, Jennifer Buchanan, who reportedly failed part of a lie detector test she took after the girl’s disappearance, has been cooperating, as have her two friends, George Kennedy and Roy Lee Smith, convicted sex offenders who remain in jail today on parole violations.

“We continue to focus on a broad perspective,” Crutchfield said today, declining to take Kennedy and Smith off the investigation’s ‘persons of interest’ list. “We’re not focusing on any one person.”

Another man jailed during the search, James Easter, 64, posted a $250 bond and was released Monday night. Charged with lighting an arson fire in his yard just after being questioned by police, Easter told a judge Monday he was only burning cardboard at 5 a.m. The judge said he had been cleared by investigators.

Nevaeh is 3 feet 10 inches and weighs 45 pounds. She was wearing a light-blue shirt with red and white stripes and knee-length jeans when she disappeared.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Sheriff's Office at 734-243-7070. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward up to $1,000 for tips leading to the return of Nevaeh. Call 800-773-2587.
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