A letter written in a Mason County Prison seems to offer new clues into the disappearance of a four-month-old baby.
Katherine Phillips who's become known as 'Baby Kate' vanished in June of 2011. Her father is in prison and also the primary suspect.
'Baby Kate's" mother, Ariel Courtland, says Kate's father, Sean Phillips, took the infant after an argument over custody. Police arrested Phillips the same day for kidnapping.
This June, he was convicted and sentenced for "unlawful imprisonment" and is serving at least 10 years in prison.
Now, he's written a letter. The letter was allegedly written in prison. It's postmarked July 16th and addressed to Baby Kate's mother. In it, it reads that Baby Kate is dead, but that it was an accident. It states that Phillips didn't realize the baby was still in his car when he drove off and that he thought Courtland left an empty baby seat in his car on purpose. It says he was going to throw it out saying "I pulled, but it was jammed between the seats. That just make it worse. I grabbed it at the top and ripped it out as hard as i could. She was thrown from it. I didn't know. I'm so sorry. "
The letter then says that Phillips drove away, regretting that he didn't help the infant.
"In the letter, he said I never had a chance to make it right. He had plenty of chances to make it right. He could have said something at any time, he could have told the truth," said Courtland.
Members of Courtland's family say the letter is a bit of a relief, knowing that it was an accident. Police say they've known about the letter for some time now and that they're using it to further their murder investigation.
They are not yet calling it a confession. The source who leaked the letter didn't want to be identified.
