MADISON, Ind. - The high school girlfriends weren't known as troublemakers. One was a cheerleader, another a soccer player and the third grew up working on her family's farm. But the Madison Consolidated High School seniors found themselves shivering on a winter night three years ago in a deserted church parking lot, surrounded by police, being questioned about drugs - and then strip searched. "We were all so scared," one of them, Kristy Lessley, said in the first interview the women have granted since the incident Jan. 19, 2007. "We just froze." [continues 1189 words]
During a morning raid on a Harrison County methamphetamine lab last March, police were stunned to discover a huge stockpile of dangerous chemicals. Amid the squalor -- where two young girls lived with their mother -- authorities found gallon upon gallon of explosive, highly toxic substances and even an open tub of acid that, if spilled, could have sparked a huge explosion. "It's unreal how big that (lab) was, and how dangerous it was," recalled Harrison County Police Chief Gary Gilley, a veteran drug investigator. [continues 789 words]
