The investigation into Amanda Bach’s murder continues, with the issuance earlier this month of search warrants for the cell phone records of several persons connected or possibly connected to the case.

Porter County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matt Frost told the Chesterton Tribune after deadline on Friday that investigators requested and were granted warrants to obtain the cell records of Bach’s accused murderer, Dustin McCowan; of certain of McCowan’s family members and acquaintances; and of certain of Bach’s acquaintances as well.

In addition, the warrants authorize investigators to obtain cell tower locations “to see where the calls were made from,” Frost added.

Investigators are doing their “due diligence” and assembling a “global picture,” Frost said, “by looking to speak with those people who may have been in communication with Amanda Bach or Dustin McCowan in that time period.”

Late in September, investigators executed search warrants on McCowan’s cell phone and iPod, both of which were in his possession when booked into the Porter County Jail.

Meanwhile, ground searches for evidence—presumably the murder weapon and Bach’s missing cell phone, although the Porter County Sheriff’s Police has never publicly said so—have been suspended, Sgt. Larry LaFlower said.

Investigators are still conducting interviews, however—to date “a minimum of 50,” LaFlower estimated—as persons who may have had some relationship either with McCowan or Bach continue occasionally to “pop up.”

“We’re leaving no stone unturned,” LaFlower said.

Investigators are also “awaiting the results of items sent for testing.” But LaFlower declined to say what evidence has been collected and what tests are being done to it.

McCowan was formally charged with Bach’s murder on Sept. 19, two days after her body was found south of the Canadian National railroad right-of-way approximately 300 yards from McCowan’s home on C.R. 625W in Union Township.

Bach, a resident of Portage, was shot once in the throat, the bullet severing a vertebra.

The case against McCowan—as made in the probable cause affidavit—is based on the statements of persons who came in contact with McCowan in the hours after Bach’s car was discovered in the early morning hours of Sept. 16 in the parking lot of Dean’s General Store on Ind. 130; on the statement of a neighbor who said she heard a “commotion” in McCowan’s yard between 1 and 2 a.m. on Sept. 16; and on McCowan’s own statements to police, for instance, that he “didn’t know anything about a commotion in the yard.”

McCowan—who has continually and consistently denied any involvement in Bach’s death, his attorney, Bob Harper, has said—told investigators that Bach left his home around 1:30 a.m. Sept. 16 after spending two and half hours there playing PSE and watching a movie.

Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa has set trial for Jan. 30.