Kayla Dunlap

State police in Butler investigating the death of Kayla Dunlap say they want to question an Emlenton man arrested earlier this week on charges of operating a meth lab at a home in Venango County.

Police say Shaun M. Long, 49, of Scrubgrass Township, was arrested on Oct. 3, after troopers executing a search warrant for his phone and vehicle found suspected drugs in plain view inside his home.

Cpl. Timothy Morando said that Long, who had been questioned in September as part of the department's investigation into the death of Kayla Dunlap, 28, of Rimersburg, Clarion County, requested an attorney almost immediately after he was arrested this week. That left investigators with unanswered questions about Long's relationship with Dunlap, whose body was found along a road behind Oneida Valley Dam on Sept. 17 and police say was last seen alive at Long's home the night before.

Investigators have said that they believe Dunlap was alive when she was dumped along the road in Oakland Township. Her body was found at about 10:30 a.m. by a woman walking her dog.

Since her death investigators have worked to piece together Dunlap's final hours alive, but the closest they have gotten came during an interview with Long on Sept. 18, when he told troopers that Dunlap was at his home on Sept. 16 when he left sometime between 8 and 9 a.m. that day.

A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.