LINCOLN - The sister of a Florida woman charged with obstructing justice in the murder investigation of a Beason family said Thursday she is looking for information about the arrest of Sara Duncan.

Duncan and her daughter, Jennifer Earnest of Armington, are accused of providing police with a false alibi for Chris Harris who, along with his brother, Jason Harris, faces five counts of murder in the Sept. 21 deaths of Rick and Ruth Gee and three of their children. A fourth child, 3-year-old old Tabitha Gee, remains hospitalized in Peoria.

Relatives are not the only ones looking for information in the Gee case. Reporters looking for information on search warrants issued in the case are being told that records will be unsealed at a later date.

Betty Tappan told The Pantagraph on Thursday that her sister came to Illinois two days before the murders to visit Earnest and Earnest's 1-year-old daughter. She planned to spend a week in Armington and had plane tickets to return Sept. 26 to Florida, said Tappan.

"She was just a grandmother, baby sitting and taking care of her granddaughter," said Tappan.

Jason Harris lived in the home with Earnest, who is his fiancee, and the little girl.

Tappan, who lives in New Mexico, said relatives in Florida have spoken with Earnest since her arrest in Sarasota but specific details of what's behind the charges have been hard to come by, she said.

Duncan remained in the Sarasota County jail, according to the jail's Web site.

Duncan spoke with police shortly before she left for Florida, said Tappan. She also talked with investigators in Florida after Earnest and the Harris brothers were in custody.

The intense media attention to the murders has Tappan and her husband, Steve Wander, concerned about Duncan's case.

"There seems to be a feeling in the community to hang everybody. I'm afraid Sarah is going to get caught up in all that," said Wander.

Sealed records

Logan County court files in the Gee case do not contain the search warrant affidavits submitted by police for hospital and telephone records. A judge ordered the information sealed without notice to the public or defense lawyers.

Springfield media lawyer Don Craven said keeping the information from the public is not proper.

"The 4th District Appellate Court has taught us you don't close files or courtrooms," said Craven.

The search warrant information has been sealed temporarily, said Kara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The Illinois attorney's general's office has assigned two prosecutors to assist Logan County State's Attorney Mike McIntosh with the case.

"It's very, very early in a very tragic case. As soon as the information can be made available to the public it will be," said Smith.

Former Logan County State's Attorney Bill Workman, now a McLean County prosecutor, said he sometimes asked that search warrants be sealed temporarily, but the documents ultimately were released. The apparent practice in Logan County of keeping search warrants under wraps is a policy implemented in the decade since Workman left, he said.

Logan County Sheriff Steve Nichols said last week that police believe the people responsible for the brutal slayings are in custody.