Investigators searched for bodies and religious cult items at a remote Kansas farm but found none because the residents are innocent, their lawyer said Tuesday.
The Bitner family lawyer, Clinton Peterson of Liberal, said a search warrant served at the Bitners' Morton County farm earlier this month sought evidence of murder -- and more.
Peterson quoted the search warrant saying that officers were seeking "religious/occult artifacts... powders, herbs, robes, gowns, restraint devices, masks, symbols, altars... biological materials including blood, hair, and bones; clothing, human and animal bodies, and any evidence of human or animal sacrifice."
But in a statement, Peterson said: "No religious cult artifacts were located, because there were none to find. No human remains were located because there were none to find."
Investigators questioned family members about whether they were involved in a religious cult, he said. But any such suspicion, he said, is "simply ludicrous."
Betty Bitner, who lives on the farm that was searched, said officers also asked the family about the unsolved 1971 slaying of an Elkhart teenager.
The body of 14-year-old Suzanne Johnson was found in a field one mile northwest of Elkhart two weeks after she disappeared. She had been strangled.
The Bitner farm, which covers more than 5,000 acres, is about 25 miles north of Elkhart.
Betty Bitner said her husband, Larry Joe, who owns the land with his mother, gave a DNA sample to investigators. She said her husband had nothing to hide and "didn't do anything."
Investigators ended their search at the farm Monday without saying what they were seeking or whether anything had been found, only that their investigation continues.
In his statement defending the Bitners, Peterson also accused the Kansas Bureau of Investigation of lying when it denied that officers drew guns Oct. 8 while executing the search warrant.
One of the Bitners is a 67-year-old hearing-impaired woman who was ordered out of her home at gunpoint, Peterson said.
KBI Director Larry Welch continued to maintain that none of his agents drew a gun. Welch said he had been assured of that after checking with his staff and local authorities involved.
Welch wasn't the only official responding to criticism by Peterson. He also lashed out at Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, saying she fueled speculation about the investigation last week when she said: "I guess there have been rumors for years about murders and bodies buried."
The governor's spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran, said Tuesday that Sebelius was responding to a reporter's question, saying she had no information except that the Kansas Highway Patrol was helping to secure an area where she had been told there had been rumors for years.
"She certainly did not mean to infer any validity in old rumors and had no idea of the specific location nor any persons involved," Corcoran said.
A remaining question is what triggered the search warrant. Peterson said the search apparently came in response to allegations made by an estranged Bitner relative in a divorce hearing in Texas.
Jill Zimmer, an official court reporter for the district court in Amarillo, said the KBI sought a copy of the relative's testimony in June.
In testimony in her divorce case that month, the relative, Rebecca Galaviz, accused relatives of a number crimes, including murder, on the family farm.
Galaviz is a daughter of Jim Bitner, who died earlier this month at 67. Galaviz could not be reached for comment.
Galaviz's sister, Vicki Wise, of Borger, Texas, disputed the allegations her sister made. "There is no way any of that ever happened," Wise said.
Wise said there have been rifts within the family dating back to her parents' divorce years ago. Wise said she thinks law enforcement is wrongly basing its investigation on her sister's allegations.
Peterson, the Bitners' lawyer, said the agencies involved owe the family a public apology and an explanation of what triggered the investigation.
Whitney Watson, the Kansas attorney general's spokesman who has been speaking for the investigators, said the search warrant would not have been issued if a Shawnee County judge had not found probable cause to think a crime had been committed.
Law enforcement officials have purposely released little information, he said.
"We have been very mindful of what we've said," Watson said. "We've encouraged the media and the public to refrain from spreading rumors, so the innocent wouldn't be harmed and the investigation wouldn't be hindered."