AS PLEAS GO OUT, HUNT FOR CITRUS GIRL GOES ON (Most Wanted to air Jessica Lunsford case tonight)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | Feb. 26, 2005 | St. Petersburg Times

[varina davis]

CRYSTAL RIVER - Too weary to walk, the father and grandparents of a missing 9-year-old girl drove the 50 yards from their home to a bank of microphones and TV cameras.

"I really ... I really need as much help as I can right now," Mark Lunsford said between sobs. "I need my daughter home."

Jessica Marie Lunsford was reported missing Thursday morning. She was still missing when Lunsford, 41, and his parents addressed the media for the first time at 9 a.m. Friday. And she was still missing long after darkness fell and well-wishers held candles and prayed.

For the second straight day, searchers scoured the woods near the Lunsford home. The clues investigators did discover Friday led nowhere.

At 6 p.m., with rain spitting at volunteers and more than 100 worn-out local, state and national law officers, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy called off the search for the night.

"Very frustrating," Dawsy said while a search helicopter buzzed overhead. "It's not because we haven't tried, as you can tell."

There were some developments Friday. The FBI found Jessica's mother, Angela Bryant, in Ohio, where she lives. Agents interviewed her and determined she was not a suspect, Dawsy said.

Law officers also said a doll was missing from Jessica's room. Dawsy didn't provide any more details.

Jessica stands 4 foot 11 and weighs 70 pounds. She is a Homosassa Elementary School third-grader.

She was last seen about 10 p.m., when her grandparents tucked her in to bed inside their mobile home in Homosassa, a small village south of Crystal River. Jessica lives there with her father and his parents, Archie and Ruth Lunsford.

Jessica wore a pink nightgown and white shorts.

"Come on, mama," Ruth Lunsford, 73, recalled Jessica telling her Wednesday night. "You got to put me to bed."

She told her grandmother, "I love you," and Ruth and Archie Lunsford retired in their room, which is near the front door.

They didn't hear any sounds all night, Ruth Lunsford said.

Mark Lunsford spent Wednesday night at a girlfriend's house. He came home sometime before 6 a.m. and heard his daughter's alarm going off. He changed his clothes to get ready for work, and checked to see why Jessica hadn't turned it off.

She was gone. The front door was unlocked and there were no signs of forced entry.

The sheriff couldn't call the case an abduction, because there have been no real clues. But he said he does not think the girl wandered off alone, and a national missing child alert has been issued.

"She wouldn't go anywhere without telling us," Ruth Lunsford said. "When God made Jessie, he made an angel. We always called her princess. I know she's out there."

Searchers with bloodhounds and riders on horseback crisscrossed the mossy oaks, pines and sugar-sand mounds Friday looking for clues the rain didn't dissolve.

Divers, meanwhile, began searching area ponds.

"We're looking for anything right now," Dawsy said when asked if he was looking for a body.

ATV riders combed the area. More than 30 members from a state Child Abduction Response Team also helped.

Convicted sex offenders living in the county were checked, sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney said. The family's home computer was taken into evidence in case a predator had contacted Jessica online.

Faith Baptist Church, Jessica's small congregation, organized a candlelight vigil in the night and helped the Sheriff's Office hand out fliers in Homosassa neighborhoods in the day. The church's white vans drove members to different blocks. When volunteers stumbled on anything suspicious, like a shovel or toys in a truck, they contacted deputies, who marked the sites. One elderly volunteer walked into barbed wire and needed medical treatment.

"We just want to help any way we can," said Arnold West, who saw Jessica Wednesday, before she went missing. "This seems the only way to do it."

A crew from America's Most Wanted received special access to detectives and the family. The show plans to air a segment on Jessica tonight. More than 11 local and national television crews crowded the area, which was guarded by police tape. Residents came in a steady stream asking for fliers to hand out.

The afternoon was mostly a lull until Hillsborough County's sheriff called Dawsy, setting the media abuzz. Deputies had found a body in a lake there. Dawsy braced Mark Lunsford for the news. He did not tell the elderly Ruth.

The body was a young woman's. It turned out not to be Jessica.

"We went through a bit of an emotional roller coaster," Dawsy told reporters. "We have confirmed it is not our girl."

[cyn]

and then there's this: "Deputies had found a body in a lake there. Dawsy braced Mark Lunsford for the news. He did not tell the elderly Ruth. The body was a young woman's. It turned out not to be Jessica."

Who was that poor person?

[proxy_user]

Sometimes, the improbable happens.

She could have woken up at six, remembered leaving something outside, and impulsively run out to pick it up. At the very same moment that she went out, X just happened to be passing by. He had no intention of committing a crime, he was just jogging or collecting the trash or something, but...

[mtbopfuyn]

Exactly, who was the female found in the lake? It's not every day LE happens to go diving for bodies and miraculously comes up with one right where they're looking.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

re: the alarm clock -- my daughter's alarm clock goes off for long periods of time because she's a heavy sleeper. I could go wake her up myself, but that doesn't teach her responsibility. Maybe the alarm clock going off for a long time is a normal thing in their house -- it is in mine.

[Snoopers-868th]

What about a computer in the house?

[Elsie]

 

 


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[Kitty Mittens]

Thank you for the Ping, my FRiend! Going on my Knees to Pray for this little girl right now.

[youngtory]

the poor man, I saw him on TV with tears in eyes. I hope they find his daughter alive.

[Neenah]

Hi again Varina !

Have you heard in media anywhere, if the woman Jessica's Dad was with the night she disappeared, has been interviewed ?

Why wouldn't the DOLL be expounded on ? The officer said he wouldn't identify the doll. That sounds like a significant clue, doesn't it?

[Graymatter]

More probable than her randomly running into a kidnapper---maybe the would-be abductor befriended her, told her there was a group of kids going on a free trip to Disney World or wherever, or to a surprise party for her grandparents. Something she was supposed to keep secret from them. Then the kidnapper doesn't have to leave any DNA on the premises. Kids are very gullible.
They should ask her friends if anybody's got a "phone friend" that none of them has ever met. It's not always the computer.

[pitinkie]

I believe he came in thru the back door, which he said was locked.

[varina davis]

Hey Neenah, heard earlier today the "doll" was a purple porpoise she got at Disney or Seaworld last week.

[Types_with_Fist]

I am forced to agree. There is no evidence of forced entry. The point where he comes home is where she is missing. Something hasn’t struck me right about him either. He’s been on TV crying without any tears.

[Neenah]

Yeah, I read that too. But the thing I was talking about was in a talk with reporters yesterday, the officer said they found a doll, but because of the investigation he could not give information on it.

That was puzzling to me.

Nice being in contact with you again. Of course, not under these sad circumstances.

[varina davis]

Neenah, just heard that Jessica's mother has arrived in Florida. That should stir things up a bit, since she and the dad are reportedly very estranged.

[formercalifornian]

Or a pen pal. My neighbor's daughter started getting mail from a pen pal, and her mom said the return address looked strange. It turned out to be from a pervert prisoner in another state.

[bboop]

I wasn't speaking to you, actually. It's a good thread. I think it's interesting to speculate, mullets included.

[Neenah]

ok thanks. I missed that.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

My oldest son used to sleep walk when he was younger....I argued with him (he was 12) at the front door one night. He was bound and determined to leave the house. I finally told to go outside--I knew he would not get far; there was 4 feet of snow on the ground and the windchill was about 15 below. He opened the door, felt the cold, & he went back to bed.

He was sleepwalking & did not remember it the next morning. I always kept the deadbolt keys way out of his reach after that.

Does anyone know if Jessica had a history of sleepwalking?

[varina davis]

I don't believe she does sleepwalk. This area is forecast to get torrential rains and storms starting about midnight tonight and throughout Sunday. That will really hamper the search for Jessica. Her mother arrived today from Ohio.