Teen's death leads to search of home

By ART BUKOWSKI
abukowski@record-eagle.com

May 10, 2008 04:00 am

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ELK RAPIDS -- A months-long investigation filled with "unexpected twists and turns" took yet another as police searched an Elk Rapids house for clues in a teen's shooting death.

Passing motorists slowed Thursday to watch officers haul boxes and sift through clothing and other items outside Anne Avery-Miller's house at 914 U.S. 31.

A couch piled with other items sat outside the home's garage, and investigators appeared to take external measurements of the garage.

State Police Detective Sgt. Richard Simpson said the search was tied to the Nov. 7 gunshot death of Avery-Miller's son, Sam Avery, 16. Simpson wouldn't provide details and deferred comment to Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop.

Koop refused to say why officers were at Avery-Miller's home, but said a reporter "wouldn't be wrong in reporting" Simpson's reason for the search.

The search warrant states officers are looking for ".22-caliber bullets, bullet holes and/or spent casings; Dunham's box of 10 or 20 (gauge) shotgun shells and measurements and pictures of the house, garage and outbuilding," inside and outside.

The investigation into Sam Avery's death created "unexpected twists and turns," Koop said.

Officials haven't been able to determine if the teen's death was self-inflicted or caused by someone else, he said, though he wouldn't provide details of the death or the investigation.

Richard Zerafa, Avery-Miller's attorney, wouldn't comment about the search or his client. Deb Zerafa, Richard Zerafa's wife and a legal assistant at his office, called the search a waste of time.

She said Avery-Miller is under severe stress, but has been cooperating with investigators.

"Taxpayers' money is being squandered and wasted," she said. "They are trying to manufacture a case against an innocent woman."

Zerafa said Avery-Miller isn't living at the home, but wouldn't specify where she is staying.

Avery-Miller, 37, disappeared for about a month Jan. 22 and eventually turned up to face a felonious assault charge stemming from an incident last year in which she allegedly tried to hit a man with her vehicle. Prosecutors dropped that charge in March when Avery-Miller pleaded guilty to a larceny conversion charge tied to an insurance fraud incident.

The plea deal states Avery-Miller must disclose where she was when she vanished, but investigators won't reveal that information until she is sentenced for the larceny charge Monday.

"At time of the sentencing, we will be disclosing for the record her whereabouts, or at least her story as to her whereabouts," Koop said.

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