Emmanuel Haro's dad joining search possible detriment to defense: Ex-detective

(NewsNation) — The search for Emmanuel Haro has reached 11 days, and the mission to find the missing baby now has police trying an old-school method.

Detectives were seen taking Haro's father, Jake, out with them on the victim-recovery mission. Haro, who was arrested with Rebecca Haro, Emmanuel's mother, was filmed wearing an orange prison jumpsuit Sunday, assisting crews search for Emmanuel's body in Moreno Valley, California.

Chris McDonough, a retired homicide detective and executive board member of the "Cold Case Foundation," tells "Banfield" that Haro's help in the search could wind up being what proves him guilty.

"I would suspect they probably have some type of digital footprint and or forensic evidence from some of the search warrants they did," he said.

"And of course, they're looking for malice, right? And in California, malice is a mental state of mind (in) which a person intends to kill somebody. So, this may go to his detriment if he is playing that game, 'I'm going to take him out there and burn some time up.' But the prosecutor may use that against him to show that he had specific intent to kill his child."

Haro probably made deal with the authorities: Former detective

McDonough thinks Jake Haro may know Emmanuel's whereabouts, which would explain why detectives pulled him out of jail to join the search. He points out that the detective standing next to Haro has his arms crossed, while Haro is leaning off to the side.

"They've got all those resources there, so they must have had something in that interview room to prompt them to pull him out of the county jail and pull him down there."

Authorities with Haro zeroed in on a particular part of the freeway right along the San Bernardino riverside. McDonough questions whether that could potentially also lead to finding Emmanuel.

"So maybe they were thinking, if we take him down here, he's going to bring us back to the reenactment of, potentially, how this child got to that area," he said.

Haro might turn on his wife: Former detective

McDonough feels Haro might turn on his wife or place the blame on her for Emmanuel's disappearance.

Why? In Haro's past case where he was accused of child cruelty, he blamed his significant other, as well.

"So this may be his same play," McDonough said. "And so it's going to be a he said, she said, and they're going to let the defense fight it out."