GLASGOW — The investigation will continue into who was responsible in the death of two-year-old Shayla Wooten.

Lori A. Ikner, who had been charged in Wooten’s death, had the case against her dismissed without prejudice Friday morning in Barren County Circuit Court. Commonwealth’s attorney Karen Davis made a motion to dismiss, stating problems with the evidence in the case. The prosecution can still bring previous evidence and any new evidence in the case, whether it be against Ikner or someone else, in a trial.

The trial for Ikner was to start Sept. 28, after having been reset in March to await DNA testing. In a previous hearing in October of 2009, Barren County Sheriff Chris Eaton testified that samples from Ikner’s van were taken.

According to the dismissal motion, DNA testing of Ikner’s vehicle “did not find the presence of [Wooten’s] DNA.” The cell phone records obtained by the KSP resulted in the production of a map that showed Ikner’s cell phone “at a great distance from the accident scene at the time of the accident,” the dismissal also said.

Davis decided to dismiss the case Sept. 22 and spoke to the family about her decision that night. She made her decision after interviewing witnesses, which she did on Tuesday, according to the order of dismissal. She said she did not have prior interviews with the witnesses conducted by law enforcement, which she gave as a reason for dismissal in court Friday.

“When I met with the witnesses, that’s when I decided not to go forward with the case,” Davis said. “Prior to Wednesday I did not feel like I had ethical concerns about the case.”

Eaton said all evidence is available, except for a missing recorded interview with Ikner made by Kentucky State Police detective Scott Skaggs. The KSP was called in to assist with interviewing Ikner because the sheriff’s office was short-handed, Eaton said.

“Nothing’s been lost, [the evidence] is there. We have the evidence box and everything, it’s just a matter of figuring out who things went to,” Eaton said. “We were ready for trial, we were ready with what we had.” 

Skaggs said he conducted the Ikner interview at the sheriff’s office by request of the BCSO and other than that, the KSP had no major part in the case.

“I was asked to come in and do the interview at the sheriff’s office and I think I was told it was recorded, so that’s where it would be,” Skaggs said.

Detective Rusty Anderson, evidence custodian at the sheriff’s office, said he was not present when the interview was conducted. He was unsure whether the interview was recorded, but said they do not have a tape in their collection of evidence. Eaton was not present for the interview either, however he said deputies had to leave while interviews were taking place to purchase more tape, so the Ikner interview might have happened while they had no way of recording it. He acknowledged that there may have been a “miscommunication” between the KSP and the BCSO in regards to whether the interview was taped.

 But the sheriff’s office had taken previous statements from Ikner and she was maintaining her innocence on the day Skaggs interviewed her.

“It’s not abnormal to just talk to suspects [informally],” Eaton said. “She was free to go, she wasn’t being charged at the time, so that might have happened,” Eaton said. He also said the KSP interview did not reveal “anything earthshattering,” but two deputies were watching the interview on closed-circuit television and the statements were available, just not recorded.

“But I would have thought the commonwealth would have looked at all of this a year ago to decide if they’d go ahead with the case,” Eaton said. “I stand by my guys and I stand by the KSP.”

Though Davis’ motion to dismiss the case listed missing interviews with Wooten’s father, “scene witnesses who actually witnessed the child being struck” and recordings of some interviews, Eaton said the BCSO has all of the evidence and they will look back at it as they start again on the investigation. Friday afternoon they began reading the grand jury testimony of witnesses in the case. He said every interview conducted by the sheriff’s office was recorded, so they will go through those again and re-evaluate everything.

“It’s like any major case, we want to make sure we do what’s right, so we’re going to sit down and look at it all again and go from there. If there’s somebody out there that knows something else, they need to come forward,” Eaton said.

There was also mention in the order dismissing Ikner’s indictment of a missing search warrant affidavit. This may have been because the sheriff’s office received consent from Ikner rather than obtaining a warrant, Eaton said.

New information was coming in just hours after the case was dismissed, including information that indicated another person had committed the crime, Eaton said. They will conduct more interviews and because of the emotion involved in the case, he is expecting to hear more as the case continues, just as he and the KSP had many sides giving input.

“They were hearing things, we were hearing things, but it all went back to Ikner,” Eaton said.

When the defense counsel for Ikner spoke in court Friday in objection to the dismissal without prejudice Circuit Judge Phil Patton expressed some concern himself about completely letting Ikner off the hook.

“I wish I could be as confident of her innocence,” he said. “This is a horrible situation ... she’ll be released without bond, but I’m going to dismiss without prejudice.”

Cole Adams, attorney for the Department of Public Advocacy requested that any exculpatory evidence turned up by law enforcement in the future be provided to the defense, and Patton agreed.

Davis’ office will be waiting for the investigation and she has told the family she hopes to have development in the case by the end of the year.

“We’ll just have to look at what we’ve got in January,” Davis said.

Wooten was killed Aug. 3, 2009, when she was struck by a van while crossing the road to get to her father, who was checking the family mailbox alongside U.S. 68/Ky. 80.