Search continues -- high and low

Zachary Bernhardt still is missing, but officers say other parents have no undue reason to fear for their children's safety.

[Times photo: Boyzell Hosey] A homemade sign hangs on a banister in front of Zachary Bernhardt's apartment.

By JANE MEINHARDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2000

CLEARWATER -- As more than 60 people continued the search for missing Zachary Bernhardt Thursday, police insisted children at the apartment complex where the 8-year-old lives are safe.

Previous Times coverage

"There is absolutely no reason for anyone there to be fearful of an abduction or something like that," said Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor. "We have no evidence a crime was committed. We don't know why Zachary is missing."

On the fourth day of Zachary's mysterious disappearance, officers and firefighters gathered at 8 a.m. at Eddie Moore baseball complex before fanning out to fly over, walk through and boat around nearly 600 acres of mangroves, woods, dense brush and the shoreline of Old Tampa Bay.

At the Savannah Trace apartment complex about 2 miles away, Leah Hackett asked to see the search for her missing son. Detectives escorted the 29-year-old woman to a car about 2:30 p.m. and showed her the searchers.

[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke] Ground crews searched an area off Bayshore Boulevard looking for a missing Clearwater boy, Zachary Bernhardt.

"She wanted to get out of the apartment," Shelor said. "They took her for a ride to where the search was going on and took her back home."

With her sisters and mother, Hackett has remained secluded in her apartment at 2690 Drew St. She told police she left her apartment about 4 a.m. Monday and went for a walk around the complex, leaving her son asleep and the door unlocked. When she returned 15 minutes later, Zachary was gone.

Police said there was no sign of a struggle in the apartment, and none of the boy's belongings are missing. Zachary, a third-grader at Eisenhower Elementary School, was wearing a T-shirt and boxer shorts.

Several of Hackett's sisters and her mother are keeping a vigil with her at the apartment, hanging around outside and exchanging small talk with reporters. Her family continued to refuse to comment. Hackett's only public statement has been a plea Wednesday for the search to continue.

[Times photo: Boyzell Hosey] Leah Hackett, middle of stairs and wearing sunglasses, leaves her apartment Thursday with detectives. She wanted to watch the search for her son, officers said.

No sign of Zachary was found around a nearby baseball complex at McMullen-Booth Road and Drew Street, Shelor said.

Some parents at the complex said they are keeping a closer eye on their children. But many said they doubted whatever happened to Zachary was a random crime that threatened them.

"I hope they find the boy," said Jose Martinez, who held his 5-year-old daughter's hand while his wife, Serena, did a load of clothes at the Savannah Trace laundry room. "We don't let my daughter out by herself except in front of the apartment, but we're not really afraid."

After school Thursday, children rode bicycles and scooters through the complex unsupervised. Others were cavorting on the playground in the middle of the complex.

Sue Harris' 7-year-old son goes to nearby Eisenhower Elementary, as do many of the children from the complex.

"I always pick my up son at school," Harris said.

"Now I look around and see if any of the other kids that walk home need a ride. It's just a precaution."

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