Investigators are scouring Manhattan in search of clues in the unsolved killing of a rural Lawrence woman, and they have searched the home of the victim’s ex-husband.

Officers from Douglas County converged Tuesday on the Manhattan home of Thomas E. Murray, according to several neighbors. One neighbor said he saw officers carrying out items in bags, and another said investigators “went through” the home.

Murray, an English professor at Kansas State University, declined to comment on the investigation Wednesday.

“I’ve just been asked not to say anything,” Murray said. “I’m paying someone a lot of money to give me that advice, so I’m going to follow it.”

He called the death of ex-wife Carmin Ross-Murray “the saddest moment in my life.”

Ross-Murray, 40, was found dead about 1 p.m. Friday by sheriff’s officers after her fiance asked them to check her welfare. The fiance, who lives in California, became concerned after he was unable to reach Ross-Murray by telephone at her home northwest of Lawrence. She had lived there since August.

Leland Warren, a professor in K-State’s English department, said detectives from Douglas County interviewed him Tuesday at the Riley County Law Enforcement Center. They asked how well he knew Thomas Murray and Carmin Ross-Murray, who was once K-State’s director of employee relations and was a former Manhattan city prosecutor.

“I assume virtually all members of the English department have been interviewed by police,” Warren said.

Some of Murray’s students also had been contacted and interviewed by sheriff’s investigators, according to a report in the K-State student newspaper. Murray teaches classes on the structure of English, linguistics, and development of English language.

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Neighbors contacted Wednesday night in Manhattan said that when the Murrays were married, they were a quiet couple and did not attend neighborhood functions. The neighbors also noted that the Murrays were devoted to their 4-year-old daughter and remained friendly with each other after the divorce.

Several neighbors also said Murray had asked them over the weekend to vouch for his whereabouts Thursday morning. Douglas County Sheriff Rick Trapp has said it appeared the slaying occurred a few days before the body was found Friday in the house at 1860 E. 1150 Road.

Lt. Kathy Tate, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said Wednesday that investigators had followed more than 100 leads — some of them outside Douglas County. But Lt. Ken Massey, who supervises the department’s detectives, would not confirm Wednesday that his office searched a home in Manhattan.

“We are not at this point commenting on any investigative techniques that we are using,” he said.

Trapp has declined to give details about how Ross-Murray was killed. In a news conference Saturday, Trapp said, “We found what we believe is a crime of violence.”

Sheriff’s officials have not said whether there were any suspects in the slaying. A written coroner’s report was not available late Wednesday.

6News reporter Mike Rigg contributed to this report.