It's a slow but steady process as detectives and Indianapolis police work together to capture the murderer of Amanda Blackburn. One great breakthrough has been that a neighbor on the same street as the Blackburn family found a gun laying in a yard near their home. That person took the gun to the Indianapolis fire station where it was turned it over to the police. At the present time, the gun is in the possession of crime lab technicians.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Lt. Richard Riddle said that, "Our detectives are looking at the caliber of the handgun recovered, to see if it does in fact match the caliber of the weapon used in the Amanda Blackburn case."
He also said that guns are found on a fairly regular basis in Indiana, but this finding was especially interesting because its location was so close to the Blackburn's home, and how recently Amanda Blackburn's shooting took place. The gun also seemed to be in good condition, suggesting that it had not been sitting in the yard for a very long period of time.
Detectives are still interested in any tips that people have in connection to the Amanda Blackburn shooting. Crime Stoppers Detective Specialist Tim Conley said that people should call even if, "it's something you don't think is valuable."
The number for Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana is 317-262-TIPS (8477).
Amanda's husband, Davey, spoke about his wife on "Good Morning America". He commented that she didn't have any enemies and was a selfless, loving woman. So he and many others whose lives she touched are wondering why this happened.
The current state of everyone who knew Amanda Blackburn still seems to be a strange web of confused and tangled emotions. But even in the midst of that, faith holds strong for so many. The church Davey Blackburn pastors, Resonate Church, went forward with their normally scheduled service on Sunday morning. Then on Sunday evening, Amanda Blackburn's life was celebrated by over 2000 people who attended her memorial.
Davey Blackburn said that his wife's journal has been a source of comfort and inspiration to him: "I read Amanda's journal entry just a few days before -- she journaled every day of her life -- just a few days before she was killed, she put something in there that just spoke volumes to us that we're deriving strength from. She said, 'We don't know what the future holds but we know who holds the future and that's Jesus.' We're drawing our strength from that and we know that Jesus holds the future and we can't see it clearly, but she sees it clearly now because she's in Heaven with Jesus and we'll see her soon."
Even the neighbors are pulling together to respond in a positive way to deal with what has happened. Members of the community walked the streets on Sunday passing out flyers. The flyers directed people with any information to call Crime Stoppers so that efforts to solve the case could continue their forward momentum.
