KC mother: I was drunk on night baby vanished

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

The mother of a missing Kansas City baby said Monday that she was drunk on the night her daughter disappeared, may have blacked out and actually last saw the child hours before the time she originally told police she checked on her.

The revelations came hours before a New York attorney best known for defending Joran Van der Sloot, the Dutch man suspected in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba, said he had been hired to represent parents Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin.

The couple reported their 10-month-old daughter missing Oct. 4 after Irwin returned from working a night shift and found the front door unlocked, the house lights blazing, a window tampered with and the baby gone. Bradley and their two sons were asleep elsewhere in the home.

Bradley told police she last saw her daughter, Lisa Irwin, when she checked on her at 10:30 p.m. But Monday, she told NBC’s “Today” show she actually last saw Lisa when she put her to bed at 6:40 p.m. She gave no explanation for the modified times.

Bradley told Fox News that she got drunk after she put her children to bed that night and may have blacked out. Asked how much she drank that night and whether it was more than five glasses of wine, she responded, “Probably.” She said she didn’t have more than 10 glasses. Bradley said she frequently drinks heavily at home but only after her children are safely in bed. She also said she takes anxiety medication and had taken a dose that day.

Bradley told NBC that police accused her of killing Lisa and she believes she will be arrested. But she also insisted again that she had not harmed her daughter.