INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Detectives searched a yard in Independence Tuesday in connection with the case of a missing Kansas City woman.

Summer Shipp, 54, disappeared in December while conducting door-to-door market research in Independence. Her car was later found, but there has been no sign of her, despite a busy campaign of fliers and billboards.

KMBC's Emily Aylward reported that the woman who owns a house near West College Terrace and North Forest Avenue is the person who asked police to search the back yard.

The homeowner is the mother of a man who was taken into custody shortly after Shipp disappeared. At the time, police called him a "person of interest."

Police have searched the home before. The woman hoped the most recent search would clear her son's name and end speculation that Shipp was buried in the back yard.

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Detectives Search Back Yard In Case Of Missing KC Woman

Tuesday, detectives arrived at the home at about 7:45 a.m., bringing police dogs and video cameras with them. Officers concentrated their search in the back yard and were at the home more than two hours.

"There've been many allegations that the back yard is where Summer is buried. So to put an end to that, (the homeowner) asked us to come and do the search with cadaver dogs," Sgt. Dennis Green said.

Police said no new information was discovered in the search.

Brandi Shipp, Summer's daughter, has been living at her mother's house since she disappeared, and has helped organize the group Friends of Summer.

"I'm convinced she's being held somewhere -- I'm not sure who or why," Shipp has said.