Sheriff: analysis of Rainn’s clothing could be important

Staff report

WARREN

Investigators are hoping a forensic evaluation of the clothing worn by Rainn Peterson when she was found a week ago will help answer questions about the girl’s disappearance.

Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation will be analyzing the clothing. “That’s important,” he said.

But the child’s mother, Brandi Peterson, 24, passed a lie-detector test; and her great-grandparents, Richard and Dora Peterson, have been cleared of any negligence or responsibility for the disappearance, Altiere said.

“She’s like Aunt Bea from Andy Griffith,” the sheriff said of Dora Peterson. “She’s a wonderful woman.”

Rainn is back at the Peterson home on state Route 45 in North Bloomfield after several days in a local hospital recovering from an infection.

Rainn disappeared from the Petersons’ home in the evening of Oct. 2 and was found by neighbor Victor Sutton on Oct. 4 about a half-mile away. She was wet and cold and her diaper was wet, Altiere said.

Detectives with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and FBI agents spent some time in the fields near the Peterson home after Rainn was found trying to determine what path she may have taken, but that did not “provide an answer,” Altiere said.