Tulsa Police Work To Solve 1999 Cold Case Murder Mystery

Tulsa Police investigators continue their search this week for the body of a 4-year-old Florida girl buried near 61st and Mingo in 1999.

On Saturday, police talked about their effort to find Ashani Creighton's remains. 

A special ground-penetrating radar is being used in the search for those remains.

3/3/2012 Related Story: Tulsa Police: Missing Florida Girl's Body May Be Buried Beneath South Tulsa Parking Lot

What happened to Ashani Creighton? That's what investigators in both Florida and Tulsa want to know.

A tip claims the girl was murdered in Florida and buried in Tulsa, near 61st and Mingo around 1999. Police hope between cadaver dogs and radar they can find her.

They have drilled a number of holes in the concrete, but recovering forensic evidence takes time.

"It's an arduous, step by step. Sometimes with brushes, sometimes with little scrapers and when you have to go three, four, five feet in the earth, it takes time," said Orange County, Florida Detective Marcus Robinson.

Police say Ashani's mother sent her to live with her grandparents, Ernest and Kaia Jackson, in Florida in 1997. But police say the Jacksons were on the run from a child abuse charge in New Jersey.

Their 8-year-old son had wandered into a restaurant, covered in bruises and burns and near death. The Jacksons were arrested, but once released on bond, took off, moving from state to state.

Police say the Jacksons traveled with their four children and their granddaughter Ashani. But when they were arrested in Tulsa, they only had four kids with them, no Ashani.

"We are emotionally invested in trying to find this little girl. It's almost to the point that nothing else matters to me," Robinson said.

Kaia Jackson is now serving 35 years in an Oklahoma prison for a separate child abuse case. Her son said while they lived in Tulsa, his parents beat him with boards, extension cords, even the back of a TV.

Ernest Jackson was acquitted. Police say it's too early to focus on suspects in this case. They say the key is finding Ashani and not just for a criminal case, but for her family.

""What would you do if this was your daughter? You'd want me to fly all over the country and try to find your little girl," Robinson said.

The search for Ashani will end Monday night.