STEUBENVILLE - Searchers looking for a small caliber handgun in Yellow Creek came up empty Tuesday.

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said he believed the handgun used in the homicide of Shelby F. Miller, 56, of 102 Boyce St., East Liverpool, last week may have been thrown in the creek.

Abdalla said searchers won't be returning to the creek. Firefighters from Irondale and Toronto and Saline Township Police assisted in the search of the creek on Tuesday.

Shelby Miller's son, Travis Miller, 27, of Deer Lodge, Tenn., has been charged with taking his father's vehicle and credit cards. No murder charge has been filed.

The county coroner's office reported Shelby Miller was shot in the back of the head on Sept. 21. The body was discovered at a fishing spot along state Route 213.

Abdalla said he did interview several people on Tuesday in Columbiana County that he said "would be beneficial to the case."

Travis Miller was arrested at a hospital in Anderson County, Tenn., less than a day after the body was discovered. Shelby Miller's truck was discovered behind the house occupied by Travis Miller's mother in Morgan County, Tenn.

(Law can be contacted at mlaw@heraldstaronline.com.)