BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN -- City police and Butler County sheriff's investigators spent their Labor Day weekend continuing to pursue homicide suspect James Lee Lawson.
Middletown police Maj. Greg Schwarber said detectives had a busy weekend following leads on Mr. Lawson's whereabouts, but he declined to elaborate.
Mr. Law- son, 29, is being sought on a federal fugitive warrant issued Sept. 2 in the dismemberment slaying of Cheryl Ann Durkin. Charged with murder, Mr. Lawson may have fled to Los Angeles County, Calif., where Mr. Lawson's aunt lives, federal court documents show.
Police there Tuesday declined to comment on the search for Mr. Lawson.
Ms. Durkin, 34, of Madison Township and Middletown, disappeared in late February. Her torso was found two months later in the Great Miami River in Hamilton. Last week, Mr. Lawson's mother, Ellen Peck, 46, led police to one of two sites where other parts of Ms. Durkin's body were buried.
Ms. Peck, is charged with tampering with evidence and her bond is $1 million. She will appear in a preliminary hearing Friday in Middletown Municipal Court, when a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to present the case to a grand jury.
Ms. Peck has hired a lawyer, Vincent Sanzone of Middletown. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
