SEARCH INTENSIFIES FOR MISSING CITRUS COUNTY (Fla.) GIRL (Jessica Lunsford, age 9) New Info

Bay News 9 ^ | Feb. 25, 2005 | Bay News 9

[varina davis]

Search intensifies for missing Citrus County girl

Friday, February 25, 2005

Over 100 federal, state and local law officers are taking part, as the search for Jessica Lunsford continues.

The 9-year-old was last seen about 10 p.m. Wednesday. That's when authorities said her grandparents put her to bed in their Homosassa home.

They said her father Mark, who also lives there, returned home early Thursday to find her missing.

Today, authorities are beefing up the search for Lunsford.

"We've activated the CART Team which is the Child Abduction Response Team from the Tampa area," Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsey said. "We expect 20 to 25 additional investigators to hit the ground."

Search crews scoured the area around Lunsford's home Thursday using bloodhounds and helicopters.

Dawsey said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is also getting involved.

He said even though family members are not suspected in Lunsford's disappearance, investigators interviewed them Thursday.

The search continued Thursday for Lunsford. "We're going through some basic investigation with them and we'll bring them back," Dawsey said. "Guess the real reason is we're looking at all avenues right now. It does not mean they're suspects by any means, but it was a very unique way the girl went missing and I'm not going to leave any stone unturned."

Lunsford is described as four-feet-ten-inches tall, weighing about 70 pounds with light brown shoulder length hair and brown eyes.

She was last seen wearing a pink nightgown and white silk shorts.

Meanwhile, Lunsford's father Mark and her granparents Ruth and Archie Lunsford held a news conference this morning pleading for her return.

"I ask you to please help me find my daughter and bring her home," Mark Lunsford said.

He also said his daughter has been with him since she was one-year-old and the last whereabout of her [Jessica] mother was in Ohio.

If you see Lunsford or know anything about her disappearance, call the sheriff's office at 352-726-1121 or call 911.

[investigateworld]

Amen, He is always with us.

[investigateworld]

Amen, He is always with us.

[cyn]

Prayer Thread for Jessica Lunsford

[Xenalyte]

The question isn't why she went with him; the question is: Why did she stay with him?

Because you don't meet hotties like him going to harp recitals?

[Worried Texan]

I always have a nagging and suspicious mind when it comes to children. I live in a fair size house and generally alone. Of course it's rural. I have alarms on each window and door, I have two outside dogs that are guardians to a small herd of goats and two very elderly horses.

I listened intently to the tales of this happening. First they have a dog, in the house and it's is
said to bark at strangers. Depending on the age it could sleep threw a invasion? Question, did it? Doll gone? I don't know to buy this or not. No shoes, no clothes, , it's raining out side, no jacket or rain coat. This man (her father) has how many kids???? She's the only one he has in that house? He states the mother didn't know where they were until this happened? The mother first and I heard this on Fox say she didn't know where they had moved to and hadn't seen this child in four years?? I have to agree there is to much that doesn't reach or match the ends of the story. I'll problem burn for saying this, but that man looks like a chicken thieving weasel and he sets all kinds of alarms off in my mind. His story is to the letter quoted from one time to the next. Does he ever vary from his statement? Ever cracked a rotten egg??????????

[livinlife2thefullest]

The funniest thing about this post is:

1.) The power of the internet.

2.) If you could find all of this information in this short of time, who else can?

3.) Our lives are an open book for all of the world to read! I can find out about almost everything a given person does every day in their life!


In the bginning I wrote that this was funny....If I may, I will change that to....

This is what is so scarey about this post!!!!!

[spectre]

I heard the father say that the Mother wasn't involved in the girl's life, but the Mother said she spoke with her on the phone every week.

Since LE hasn't ruled anyone out as a suspect, we can continue to speculate, IMHO. I don't want to think the Father had anything to do with this. Read on...

I saw a case profiled on a Forensics show, where the Father had a girlfriend who didn't want to marry him because he had custody of a teenage daughter. Anyway, turns out the Father actually killed his own daughter to clear the way for marriage. They put a GPS system on his truck, and tracked it to the grave site.

sw

[Worried Texan]

I saw that show. Pitiful, but she was dead just the same. I feel there is much the authorities are not saying at least I hope so. There was a comment about a trailer park, they don't live in a railer park do they? I thought it was an acreage with a mobile on it?

[pollywog]

Polly Klaas was taken from the bedroom of her home too.

This is why I do NOT allow my daughter's bedroom windows to ever be anything but LOCKED!!!!!!!

[BifBimble]

They'd have to be fast enough to dodge or outrun that .40 Corbon semi-jacketed hollow point first.

I myself use the Golden Sabre in the loaded clip, and Silvertips in the spares. I've heard that Corbon is a bit unpredictable trajectory wise.

[BifBimble]

Looks like another sick SOB at work. When will this ever stop.

[pollywog]

AMEN!!

[BifBimble]

I think the most startling thing about this case, though, is that this little girl was taken from her UNLOCKED home in the middle of the night. WHY in the world would you leave your house unlocked when you have something as precious as a child sleeping, in what she feels, is the most protected place in the world ?

How true. I myself find it a good idea to have a big ole dog in the house to make sure he alerts me if anything to "come up".

[beezdotcom]

One morning, I woke up and found the back door unlocked. Turns out, even though both my wife and I checked it before we went to bed, one of the kids had run downstairs for a quick drink of water, saw the cat outside, let it in, and forgot to lock the door again.

The main point is that accidents can happen, even with those whom you love dearly. Must we rush to condemn the grandparents and or the father in this case, before we even know WHO took the girl and whether or not a locked door would have even stopped him?

[A knight without armor]

I agree with you.

Since he was in the habit of coming in the back door it is not like the grandmother had left the front door unlocked for him.

Sad that the little girl is evidently used to her father spending the night with his girlfriend. At least that is the gist I got.

[RGSpincich]

The victim's family is being unfairly vilified. The front door was found unlocked, that doesn't mean it wasn't locked before the grandparents retired. The abductor probably unlocked it from the inside to exit the home. Nobody knows how he got in.

[JacksonS]

when first heard about this on Friday I was very upset. Jessica looks like such a beautiful happy girl. I even cried today. But i don't think she's dead. Obviously someone didn't come in and clamp a hand over her mouth and take her. she went with whoever it was willingly. Her favorite doll was gone after all. I think it was a family member or someone really close to her, so I think she's safe but I am worried. may Jesus be with her.

[beezdotcom]

The front door was found unlocked, that doesn't mean it wasn't locked before the grandparents retired. The abductor probably unlocked it from the inside to exit the home. Nobody knows how he got in.

This is such an obvious point that I'm upset that I didn't think to raise it. One thing is sure - whatever way he came in, he probably went out the door, and would not likely have taken the time to relock it. If it was a common type of door/lock for a trailer, it might even have been someone else in the park who kept trying his own key on similar doors until he found one that fit. (Anybody remember the story a few months back about the nephew of someone that nearly got shot because he entered the wrong house in the middle of the night, using a key that turned out to fit BOTH houses?)

[spectre]

Hi RG. Just trying to talk it out here. It was reported that the dog had a habit of barking alot. That night, either the dog didn't bark because it knew the abductor, or it did and the Grandparents slept thru it.

sw

[varina davis]

Yes, the dog may have been acquainted with the abductor.