TN. police search for two missing children initially believed to have perished in intense house fire www.privateofficer.com

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Bedford TN Sept 272012 Two children initially believed to have perished in an intenseTennessee farmhouse fire along with their step-grandparents are now consideredmissing and perhaps in danger, investigators said on Wednesday.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said the remains of9-year-old Chloie Leverette and 7-year-old Gage Daniel were not found and theagency issued an endangered child alert for them on Wednesday afternoon.Investigators said neighbors last saw the children Sunday evening, hours beforea fire destroyed the home in Bedford County about 40 miles southeast ofNashville.
TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said the district attorneyasked the agency to investigate the fatal fire and the whereabouts of thechildren. She said there is no evidence yet that the children were not in thehouse, but investigators are speaking with family members, friends and peopleat the children's school.
Helm said TBI issued the alert "under an abundance ofcaution."
"As time moves on, we don't want to miss ouropportunity to locate them if they were not in the house," Helm said.
The State Fire Marshal's Office said in a statement that ithas concluded "that there are no remains of the two children in thestructure. The children's location at this time is unknown." Itsinvestigators will determine a cause.
Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce said investigators didfind the bodies of 72-year-old Leon"Bubba" McClaran and his 70-year-old wife, Molli McClaran. He saidMonday that investigators had found three bodies, but now says one turned outto be that of a dog.
Helm confirmed that the remains of two people and an animalwere recovered in the house, but she said the medical examiner would have topositively identify them.
The fire was very intense and quickly collapsed the walls ofthe house. Firefighters spent several hours battling the flames overnightSunday and early Monday, but they were hindered because the house sat far backfrom the road and was not near a hydrant.
Forensic anthropologists and cadaver dogs searched throughthe rubble for the remaining bodies and the Tennessee Highway Patrol used ahelicopter to search the surrounding area.
Even in an intense fire, some bones and teeth should remain,although finding them may be extremely difficult, said Dr. William Bass, whofounded the Body Farm research facility at the Universityof Tennessee in Knoxville, where researchers study thedecomposition of corpses in a variety of circumstances to aid scientific andcriminal research.
"When you cremate a body in a crematorium, and it iscooling down, when you open the door, you can still identify the bones even ifthey are children," he said.
A child's skeleton contains many more bones than an adultskeleton, and bones and teeth shrink in size when exposed to fire, so the bonesthe investigators are looking for could be only a couple of inches long, hesaid.
Family members told The Associated Press that the McClaranswere raising their step-grandchildren because they needed a home and describedthem as generous people who loved their family. Relatives of the McClarans saidthe girl also used the last name Pope.
The state Department of Children's Services investigated themother of the two children and Daniel's father between 2006 and 2010, saidspokesman Brandon Gee. Gee would not release the names of the parents.
He would not say why the parents were investigated, but saidthe agency was sharing information with law enforcement involved in theirsearch. He confirmed that the McClarans had custody of the two children, but hesaid DCS has never taken custody of them nor placed them in a home.