Family keeps watch at house where infant was last seen; FBI searches homes in neighborhood

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Twelve hours - that’s how long Capt. Steve Young with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department said an AMBER Alert can last.

At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the AMBER Alert for Lisa Irwin will expire.

The 10-month-old’s family kept watch at  home near 37th Street and North Lister Avenue all day long. Their faces were long with worry as they hoped police officers would return with answers.

Lisa was put to bed at 10:30 Monday night in a purple outfit with white kittens on it.

Five and a half hours later, when her father returned home from work, Lisa was discovered missing .

Police say she has blonde hair and blue eyes, weighs 30 pounds and has a bug bite under her left ear.

Neighbors couldn't believe their ears on Tuesday morning. One man explained to NBC Action News that the whole situation made him feel numb.

Donald Kluge said, “These things seem to be happening a lot more often, you see it on the news. We have the AMBER Alert program, in the 50s we never had the AMBER Alert."

Other neighbors described an out of the ordinary morning with FBI agents knocking on their front doors.

Terry Asby-Shelton said, “My husband said they are FBI and I thought he was kidding and I thought it was some kind of inspection or something. And I said, ‘What's going on here?’ and they said it was a baby. I just about fainted."

Detectives and FBI agents searched more than a hundred homes surrounding the place where Irwin was last seen. They also scoured nearby apartments and even dumpsters. NBC Action News spotted two detectives taking away several bags of evidence from an area several blocks from the family’s home.

One man in the neighborhood saw a suspicious person walking with a baby at midnight.

His wife detailed the scenario, “He was carrying a baby and he kind of was pushing it against his chest and my husband kept looking at him and the gentleman kept walking."

Now, the mother regrets not acting sooner.

She said, “He wanted me to call the cops and I hate that I didn't call them last night. But I didn't think anything of it just seeing somebody walking and now I wish I would have."

They reported the sighting to police Tuesday morning. Officers were not able to confirm to NBC Action news if that tip lead to any solid evidence or lead.

Neighbors were horrified this could happen so close to home.

They all shared Asby-Shelton’s sentiment, “I hope they find that baby alive.”