Dru Sjodin, 22, has been missing since she was last seen walking to her car at a Grand Forks, N.D., mall parking lot. Dru Sjodin, 22, has been missing since she was last seen walking to her car at a Grand Forks, N.D., mall parking lot.
| Posted on Tue, Nov. 25, 2003 |   |
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FISHER, Minn. - The cell phone that carried Dru Sjodin's voice just before she vanished Saturday evening was the focus Monday of the intensive search for the UND student. Today, hundreds of volunteers are expected to help look for the 22-year-old senior who family and police fear was abducted Saturday from the Columbia Mall parking lot. In the midst of a cell phone call to her boyfriend in the Twin Cities about 5 p.m. Saturday, she exclaimed, "Oh my God" or "Oh no," police said. The call then disconnected. Using information from the Sprint telephone company, law enforcement officials focused the search around a Fisher cell phone tower that logged the phone's signal for 24 hours after Sjodin disappeared. Sjodin's friends from her hometown of Pequot Lakes, Minn., gathered in the Fisher Cafe and Community Center on Monday. "We got here around 5:15 a.m. and just drove around for a while," said Adam Ruud. "We checked out the tower sites and just looked around." He and his friends met Dru's father, Allan Sjodin, for breakfast in Grand Forks and spent the day searching and waiting for news. Ruud was unwavering in his commitment to find his friend. "We'll be here," he said. "We just want to bring her home." About 60 federal, state and local law enforcement officials searched here all day Monday. They will resume at daylight today, bolstered by hundreds of volunteers expected to join the search. Signal clue Investigators don't think Sjodin necessarily is near Fisher, said Grand Forks Police Sgt. Michael Hedlund. But her cell phone gave off a signal locating it within about five miles of the tower near Fisher from about 8 p.m. Saturday until the signal faded away 24 hours later, he said. "It could have been someone driving down the road and throwing the cell phone out the car window," Hedlund said. "We don't know she has been there - we know the cell phone has been there." Sjodin left work at Victoria's Secret in Columbia Mall at 4 p.m. Saturday; she spent nearly an hour shopping in the mall, finishing in Marshall Fields about 5 p.m., Hedlund said. While in that store, Sjodin began a 10-minute cell-phone conversation with her boyfriend, who lives in the Twin Cities area. While talking to him, she walked out of the mall and to her car. The conversation ended abruptly, the boyfriend told police, when Sjodin exclaimed, "Oh my God" or "Oh no," and the call disconnected. That was about 5 p.m. Saturday. Police think those words, uttered in or near her car, signaled her abduction. Forensic tests of evidence gathered from the car were not complete Monday, he said. Shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday, the boyfriend called Sjodin's roommate in the student apartment she shared on UND's campus to express concern about her welfare. About 7:40 p.m. Saturday, Sjodin's boyfriend received another call from her cell phone, but there was no voice on the other end, and the call quickly was disconnected. That call came, according to Sprint telephone officials, from within a three- to four-mile radius of the tower near Fisher, Grand Forks Police Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten said. Meanwhile, when Sjodin's UND roommate learned that the always-reliable Sjodin did not show up for her 9 p.m. shift at the El Roco, the roommate knew something was wrong and called UND Police to report her missing. Late Saturday night, UND Police sent out an all-points bulletin to law enforcement agencies in the region, Eggebraaten said. By early Sunday, Grand Forks Police got involved. Sjodin's car, a 1986 Olds Cutlass Supreme, was found in the parking lot outside the north entrance to J.C. Penney. It isn't known if that's where Sjodin parked it before work, Eggebraaten said. No witnesses to her apparent abduction have come forward, but police have received more than 30 calls offering information or leads, Hedlund said. At least one item known to have been purchased by Sjodin at Marshall Fields was missing from the car, he said, but he wouldn't elaborate. No blood was found in the car, but other evidence in the car indicated she may have been abducted, Eggebraaten said. Her cell phone's signal indicated it was near Fisher, but the signal was lost about 8 p.m. Sunday, Eggebraaten said. That's where about 60 federal, state and local officers focused their search Monday. By ground and air The intensive hunt began Monday morning from the air with UND planes and three Border Patrol helicopters and moved quickly to a ground search, which included a seven- or eight-mile radius around Fishers Landing. An officer on foot and a member of the Polk County Posse walked a bloodhound near the water and woods at Fishers Landing, about 10 miles east of East Grand Forks, at the beginning of the search. When no trail was found, the officer moved to Ross Seed, a mile or two east of Fishers Landing, where a continuous line of police vehicles pulled in and began organizing a search. Where cars couldn't maneuver, ATVs took over, with drivers in blaze orange vests running the vehicles up and down ditches along U.S. Highway 2 and along farm fields. "We're gonna go find this girl," said Trent Stahlecker of the Polk County Sheriff's Office as he climbed into his car. Searchers worked individually and in groups and used radios and cell phones to communicate with the command center and each other. Stahlecker and those searching with him southwest of Fisher drove slowly, tires crunching on the gravel road. A bright pink object in the field caught searchers' attention. "It's an inner tube," Stahlecker said, waving off fellow searchers. Nothing linked to Sjodin was found Monday, said Polk County Sheriff Mark LeTexier, who led the search. No suspects have been identified, but a man "with a foreign accent" had made at least one harassing phone call to Victoria's Secret, asking about Sjodin in the past two weeks, Lt. Eggebraaten said. The type of foreign accent was not specified, he said. Police believe Sjodin's boyfriend was in the Twin Cities area Saturday night when she disappeared, Hedlund said. Grand Forks Police investigators talked to him several times via telephone, and agents of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension planned to visit him Monday, Hedlund said. Honor student Sjodin graduated in 2000 from a Pequot Lakes area high school, where she was homecoming queen and an honor student. She is described as about 5-foot-5, 130 pounds, with frosted blond hair and blue eyes. Police said she was wearing black slacks, black loafers, a pink and purple V-neck blouse, a black blazer-style jacket and black pea coat, carrying a small black handbag. UND reacts UND President Charles Kupchella issued a statement saying the school is doing what it can to help with the investigation and is providing housing to the Sjodin family, as well as counseling to students. Members of Sjodin's sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, planned to join the search today. Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, said Dru planned to graduate next year in graphic arts. Her daughter does not know anyone from the Fisher area, Walker said. Adam Schutz, 23, a UND student who told The Associated Press he had dated Sjodin about three years, planned to search today. "She just wouldn't take off without letting anybody know," Schutz said. "She's a great person. I don't know why anyone would want to do anything to hurt her. This is very difficult." David Sutfin, Sjodin's uncle, said an unnamed "private benefactor," added $20,000 to the $20,000 reward the family already had offered for information leading to her safe return. He said family and friends and especially Sjodin's parents, Linda Walker and Allan Sjodin, appreciate the concern of those searching for their daughter. "We are asking everyone to work very closely with the Grand Forks Police Department," Sutfin said. "And make sure if they have any information about Dru, her whereabouts, or any information about the mall incident, where she was abducted, no matter how small or slight they might think it is, that they might contact the police," Sutfin said. Sutfin lives in Virginia but came to Minnesota the past weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with Sjodin's family, and now is spending time in Grand Forks searching for her and acting as a spokesman for the family. "The family was getting together for the first time in 30 years, and this happened," Sutfin said. "Everyone is just coming together to help Allan and Linda." Allan Sjodin declined to answer questions at a news conference Monday at the Grand Forks Police Department. He made a short, quiet statement, though, pleading with whoever took his daughter "to come forward." "Please release her," he said. "We want her home for Thanksgiving." |
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MISSING WOMAN: Police call on public to help in search
Buses will begin leaving at 8 a.m. today from Ralph Engelstad Arena Herald Staff Writer Authorities are calling on civilian volunteers to help search for 22-year-old UND student Dru Sjodin, who police believe was abducted Saturday from a Columbia Mall parking lot in Grand Forks. Individuals or groups interested in helping are asked to meet at 7:30 a.m. today in the new Ralph Engelstad Arena. From there, buses will transport searchers to Fishers Landing, Minn, the primary search area. Police say an 8 p.m. Saturday call was transmitted from a cellular phone tower near Fishers Landing, about 10 miles east of Grand Forks, and that that call was traced to Sjodin's cell phone Saturday night. It was the last link to Sjodin that friends and family reported after she had left the mall about 5 p.m. Saturday. Buses will leave today from Engelstad Arena to the search area every hour beginning at 8 a.m. The buses will return to the arena every half-hour, said Grand Forks Police Sgt. Mike Hedlund. Hedlund said that volunteer searchers must be prepared to give up a form of identification to authorities before they can be involved in the search. "We need to know who we are working with for the search," Hedlund said. "(The volunteers) will then be issued a search badge, which will identify them as a member of the search." Grand Forks Police Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten said that authorities will keep each person's identification card until that person is finished searching and is ready to head back to Grand Forks. Searching in teams Search teams will be divided into groups of 10, and law enforcement officials will designate teams leaders. Polk County Sheriff Mark LeTexier also is requesting that landowners within three to five miles of Fishers Landing check their properties for signs of Sjodin. Shelterbelts, Quonsets and farmyards are all areas that should be inspected. The search, which commenced Sunday morning and continued into Monday, will focus on areas north and south of U.S. Highway 2 near Fishers Landing. Federal, state and local authorities from North Dakota, using ground and air assets, did the initial searches. Hedlund said an Altru ambulance will be on site today in case of emergencies, and the Grand Forks Police Department will provide chaplain services for anyone who wishes to use them. Sjodin, originally from Pequot Lakes, Minn., is about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 130 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair. She last was seen wearing a pink shirt, black pants, black blazer, black shoes and a black pea coat. Amanda Anderson, UND student body vice president, said that a number of UND Greek and student organizations, including members of Gamma Phi Beta, in which Sjodin was a member, have expressed interest in joining the search for her. "A lot of random students are saying that they want to help out, too," Anderson said. UND President Charles Kupchella said that his school's crisis team has been working since the weekend to provide support for Sjodin's family and friends. The crisis team, made up of school vice presidents, staff and faculty, meets frequently throughout the year, according to officials. Another memorable period when the team convened was Sept. 11, 2001, to map out a plan to help students cope with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. "Our hearts go out to Dru's family, and we are doing what we can to be helpful to them," Kupchella said. "We are providing the family with housing as well as access to UND personnel and resources." Prayer vigil A prayer vigil for Sjodin was held Monday night at Christus Rex Lutheran Church on campus, at which school counselors were available. Counseling services also will be available today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Governor's Room of the Memorial Union. The school's Counseling Center can be reached at 777-2127. For additional assistance, students also can contact the dean of students at 777-2664. UND Provost John Ettling called on UND faculty, staff and administrators to consider the stresses that some students might be under this week as a result of the apparent abduction. "As the holiday season and the end of the semester approaches," Ettling said, "our students often find this to be a stressful time. The recent news reports about a missing student increase those feelings of anxiety." |
Allan Sjodin at a Monday press conference:
"I just want to plead to the press and everyone out there that please, anything you know about Dru, come forward.
"The person that did this, please release her.
"We're just in total shock over this.
"We want her released. We want her found.
"We want her home for Thanksgiving with all her friends and family.
"She's a fantastic young lady. We need her back."
