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Volunteers search for girl

Sixteen teams searching around Jessica Lunsford's home come up with no clues.

By Times Staff
Published March 14, 2005

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Search for Jessica continues

HOMOSASSA - About five dozen volunteers continued looking for Jessica Lunsford over the weekend, with dawn-to-dusk searches on Saturday and Sunday that turned up no clues.

Friends, family and strangers formed 16 teams to scour the area around the Sonata Avenue mobile home where the girl was last seen more than two weeks ago.

They focused on roadways, both main and side streets, and checked at least a 200-foot area on each side, said Bob Walcutt, executive director of the Laura Recovery Center, a Texas nonprofit group created to assist in searches for missing children.

Volunteers used two all-terrain vehicles, a kayak and a bike to aid their search, and covered areas from 6 to 10 miles out, Walcutt said. They plan to regroup next weekend to continue the search, possibly moving the command center from the Faith Baptist Church to the Lunsford home.

Jessica, 9, vanished from the mobile home sometime late Feb. 23 or early Feb. 24 while her paternal grandparents slept in a room nearby. Her father, Mark Lunsford, has said he does not think she would have wandered out on her own.

Since then, crews have searched extensively for the girl. Her disappearance brought attention from around the country, and the nation went on alert.

While the searching continues, Walcutt pleaded for property owners to check their own land for Jessica,

"It's very important for people to step up and get involved," Walcutt said. "We've got to stop these predators from doing this."

[Last modified March 14, 2005, 01:28:20]