Sander, a student at Butler Community College, disappeared on Thanksgiving weekend.
After an exhaustive search, her body was found alongside the highway, 50 miles east of El Dorado, where she was last seen leaving the Retreat bar with suspect Israel Mireles. It is suspected Sander’s body had been dumped there by Mireles, 24, who may have been en route to the home of his pregnant, 16-year-old girlfriend Victoria Martens. The pair is currently at-large.
El Dorado Police Chief Tom Boren insisted last Thursday that Sander's Internet activity had no connection to her disappearance.
"The issue of the Internet and the spinoff of that has been literally crippling our investigation," Boren said, referring to hundreds of false leads gathered by the El Dorado police, due to the notoriety of the case.
Owners of YourDailyGirls.com have stated that the media has been “irresponsible” in the coverage of the model’s disappearance and death.
Sander’s solo girl site, which is affiliated with YourDailyGirls.com, ZoeyZane.com was relaunched this week with pictures of the suspect and his girlfriend, as well as a reward of $3,773 for information leading to Mireles’ capture.
Visitors also can contribute to the reward fund by going to any Bank of America and donating to the “Reward Fund for Emily Sander,” or there is an option to contribute via PayPal, on the Zoey Zane site.
The following statement to the media also is issued on the site: “It truly saddens us to see, in this day and age, that we still live in a society that ridicules a woman for doing something that is completely legal. There was some incorrect information leaked to the press on Wednesday by an unknown individual named ‘David Thomas’ claiming to have information about Emily's huge ‘porn’ career. He has nothing to do with our company nor do we know any individual by that name.”
“Now, due to your irresponsible journalism and not checking your facts before sending out this info over the news wire, you have turned this into a PR feeding frenzy for the sole purpose of creating drama to draw in viewers,” the statement continued.
“We want to set the record straight. Emily was a solo nude model whose site went live September 25, 2007. She was exactly that — a solo-girl model. As soon as these false facts were released, YOU the media, from your ‘porn’ story you ran, have sent more traffic to Emily's adult site in two hours than the site has received in two months, since the site has gone live. We ask all media outlets — please show some class and respect, for once, on a very sad and misfortunate situation, and get back to the main focus now of capturing Israel Mireles,” it said.
There also is a statement addressed to Israel Mireles that reads: “You can run, but you cannot hide. Running to Mexico will not keep you safe from justice; you will be caught.”
A viewing for Sander is scheduled for Wednesday, at the Carlson Funeral Home in El Dorado, with a funeral on the following day.
Investigators are asking anyone with information about the Emily Sander case to call them at (316) 321-9120 or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-KS-CRIME.
The El Dorado police department can be contacted at (316) 321-9120.
