Not in park, you will burn in hell, in basement of apartment, i'm the mommy, had affair with boyfriend, this was planned, god will ?"

"the baby sitter was jealous, read the letter, look for, DNA will prove to be the babies mother, hall, JT"

"Insane -- in the basement , white sheet cover, 21, TH kill them all, knife, scissors"

EAST ST. LOUIS -

Police desperately searched on the ground, in the water and from the air Friday for the three young children of a woman whose unborn fetus was ripped from her womb in a weedy lot.

The search, coordinated by Illinois State Police, was centered in 1,100-acre Frank Holten State Park and included officers from a number of area departments."Our main concern at this point is trying to find the children alive," Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler said.The victim was identified as Jimella Tunstall, 23, of East St. Louis. Her children were last seen on Monday in the company of Tunstall's cousin, Tiffany Hall, 26, of 645 N. 56th St., who police call a "person of interest" in the case but not a suspect. She had not been charged Friday.FBI agents and representatives of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. also joined the effort, and Friday night were at the state police District 11 headquarters in Collinsville, Master Sgt. Rick Hector said.Hall was taken into custody about 11:40 p.m. Thursday at a residence in East St. Louis -- about nine hours after Tunstall's body was found in the field behind Hall's residence.

Hall continued to be held for questioning Friday night, police said. "We're not rushing to judgment," St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said. "We are taking our time and waiting on reports from investigators."The missing children were identified by Illinois State Police as DeMond Tunstall, 7, Ivan Tunstall-Collins, 2 1/2, and Jinela Tunstall, 1 1/2.Police searched from horseback and on foot, acting on information that the children could be in the park. By noon, boats were brought to the park so that investigators could search its two large lakes using dogs who can sniff through the water.There were unconfirmed reports that two of the children had been found, but police denied that and said none of the children were located before the search was suspended about 3 p.m.

A man believed to be the children's father was at the scene but declined to comment.Hall's own two children, who originally were feared missing as well, were found to be safe in the care of their grandmother, police said. Police gave the following descriptions of the children:

• DeMond is a light-skinned black male with braided hair. He was last seen wearing green and blue basketball shorts, a black or blue short-sleeved shirt, no socks and gray, blue and white tennis shoes.

• Ivan is a light-skinned black male with a low haircut with two bald patches on his head. He was wearing blue and white Chicago White Sox shorts and a blue or black shirt with beige or white and blue shoes.

• Jinela is a light-skinned black female with her hair twisted back. She was last seen wearing a pink shirt, pink and white Capri pants and blue and white tennis shoes.

Authorities provided few details of the investigation, other than to confirm they were looking for the missing children. Ace Hart, a St. Clair County deputy coroner, pronounced Jimella Tunstall dead at 4:08 p.m. Thursday. An autopsy revealed that Tunstall died from an abdominal wound. Hart said Tunstall had been knocked out with a blunt object and her unborn baby had been cut from her wound with a sharp object, possibly a pair of scissors that was found near the body. Authorities believe Tunstall bled to death. Tunstall only recently regained custody of her three children, who were in the care of the Illinois Department of Family Services. She had been living in the John DeShields public housing complex but may have moved recently. Police would not confirm whether Tunstall and her children had been living with Hall.

Meanwhile, Hall showed up at Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville last Friday, Sept. 15, with a stillborn baby. The baby showed no signs of trauma.  She told hospital personnel that she had been raped in a man's home in St. Louis and had a miscarriage. But she refused to let hospital officials examine her and checked herself out of the hospital.  Hall told her boyfriend the child was not hers and that she had killed a woman and taken her baby, East St. Louis Police Chief James Mister said. The boyfriend, a sailor home on leave, reported the conversation to authorities.  Just hours after a funeral for the baby was held at a Belleville funeral home, East St. Louis Police arrived at the North 56th Street address and discovered Tunstall's body.

Hall, who lived at 645 N. 56th St. with her mother, was not at home at the time but had been there about an hour before police arrived, neighbors said. A search of the massive park, located at the end of Illinois 111 and Lake Drive, is expected to continue today. Police used a helicopter to search the park and also conducted foot patrols through the dense foliage.  Dozens of police officers and firefighters took part in the search, which also included a boat searching the shoreline of the lake in the park and a cadaver dog. When asked why officers were searching the lake, Illinois State Police Lt. Mark Bramlett would only say that tips led police to Frank Holten State Park.

"We can't say what the leads are," he said.  LaDonna Tunstall, Jimella's stepmother, said the baby would have been about 7 months along, and that Tunstall was due to have her baby in November. She said the news of Jimella's death was "very disturbing" to her.  As the search progressed on Friday, more and more family members and friends arrived at the state park, seeking news about the missing children.  Victoria Adams, 16, called the sudden disappearance of the children "horrible." Adams said she often baby-sat the children.  "They are adorable children. I am just praying that they are all right," she said.  Cheryl Sanford, who was DeMond Tunstall's foster mother when he was a baby, said Jimella was a quiet young woman."She had such a rough life. Life didn't treat her fair. She struggled as a young girl. The best memory I have of her was when she graduated from high school. She told me she couldn't have done it without me," Sanford said.

Tunstall's brother, Ernest Myers, said he's "more angry than anything" over the murder of his sister.  "I just lost a sister in 2002 with ovarian cancer and now another sister is dead," he said.  Myers said he hadn't seen his sister for a couple of months and had heard about the tragedy from news accounts.When asked whether Tunstall was living on North 56th Street with Hall, Myers said he didn't know, but speculated, "Maybe she and her boyfriend had an argument and she had gone there."  Regina Kizer said Jimella Tunstall, her first cousin, said she last saw Jimella on Labor Day at a family gathering."It's horrible for someone to do something like this to another human being," Kizer said. This is the second extraordinary crime in the St. Louis area in the past week involving a young baby.Just last week, Shannon Torrez allegedly stabbed Stephenie Ochsenbine in Union, Mo., and took her 7-day-old daughter. The child was found Tuesday when Torrez's sister-in-law became suspicious and notified police.