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The search for Jessica Lunsford
Pitcher offers $25,000 reward to find missing girl
The Atlanta Braves' Mike Hampton grew up in Homosassa, where she disappeared.
By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published February 27, 2005
HOMOSASSA - Atlanta Braves baseball pitcher Mike Hampton offered a $25,000 reward Saturday for information that locates Jessica Marie Lunsford, a 9-year-old girl missing from her Citrus County home since Thursday.
Hampton grew up in Homosassa and still owns a home in Citrus.
"My grandmother and grandfather have lived there since the '60s, and they've never had their door locked," Hampton said. "It shows you how the world is changing. Things can happen in any city, no matter what size it is. This is a wake-up call."
More than 600 searchers continued to comb the area around the Lunsford home on Sonata Avenue in Homosassa Saturday for clues to what became of the third-grader.
At Faith Baptist Church, volunteers climbed aboard buses to get to the woods and marshes of western Citrus County and begin their search on foot. Others rode horses and all-terrain vehicles.
The search was called off at 5:30 p.m. and will resume at 7:45 a.m. today. The Sheriff's Office will expand the search area around Jessica's home.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney said she expected even more searchers to turn out today, weather permitting. The National Weather Service predicted rain and possibly severe storms for the area today.
"Weather has not been beneficial to my investigation at all," Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said.
Despite numerous tips, the Sheriff's Office still has no suspects in the disappearance.
Jessica's father, Mike Lunsford, and grandfather, Archie Lunsford, on Saturday passed voice stress tests, which are similar to lie detector tests.
Still, Tierney said, "we really haven't crossed anybody off our suspect list so far."
The child's mother, Angela Bryant, flew in from Ohio after being debriefed by FBI agents, Tierney said. She was not a suspect, authorities said.
Dawsy told reporters the girl's disappearance is not a confirmed abduction, and he hasn't ruled out anything.
"Time is of the extreme essence, and it's now become my enemy, so I need to make sure I keep everybody in the picture," Dawsy said Saturday.
Mark Lunsford is convinced his daughter was abducted, but he can't understand how or why. He said his mother woke up Saturday screaming for the missing girl.
"I have so many questions in my mind," he said. "How do you do that? How did someone come in and get my daughter? I just can't imagine. How did it happen? How do you do that?"
Jessica was reported missing shortly after 6 a.m. Thursday. Her grandparents said they last saw her at 10 the night before when she went to sleep at their mobile home.
Her father said he returned from his girlfriend's home about 6 a.m. to get ready for work and found that the front door was unlocked and Jessica was not in the house. There were no signs of forced entry. A doll was missing.
Kim Bidlack knows Jessica as one of her students in a Bible study class held Wednesday nights, the last time the girl was seen in public.
"She is a little angel," said Bidlack, who volunteered for the search at the Faith Baptist Church, where she teaches the King's Kids Club.
Jessica moved to Homosassa with her father a year ago and began attending the church. Bidlack said Jessie was shy at first, then blossomed into a girl whose intelligence and maturity set her apart.
"She's just a sweet, innocent little girl," said the Rev. William LaVerle Coats, Bidlack's father and pastor of the church. "She'll win your heart. She's not outgoing and bubbly necessarily, but she's very friendly and always has a smile on her face."
Investigators have received more than 150 tips but almost no clues aside from an unlocked door and a missing doll.
Times staff writer Jeff Solockek and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
[Last modified March 1, 2005, 04:51:02]
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