Posted on 03/01/2005 5:29:35 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper
HOMOSASSA, Fla. - A scaled-back search of the area immediately surrounding the home of a missing 9-year-old girl Tuesday turned up no new clues in her disappearance, and was suspended at sunset.
Searchers were expected to resume the hunt for Jessica Marie Lunsford at dawn Wednesday.
"Most people go out there looking for the person. We're looking for something they left behind," said Melissa Wolf-Johnson, one of the searchers who hunted for footprints or other signs the girl, known as Jessie, had been in the area.
The child has not been seen since her grandmother tucked her into bed last Wednesday night.
Five search-and-rescue teams from central Florida spent the day scouring the palmetto scrubs, pine thickets and open fields in the residential neighborhood where Jessie lived with her father, Mark Lunsford, and her grandparents.
The hunt focused on a three-quarter-mile radius of the girl's home, about 60 miles north of Tampa. A broader five-day search with hundreds of volunteers failed to find any trace.
"Where it took us five days to go five miles out, now it will take us three days to go three-quarters of a mile out," Citrus County Sheriff's spokeswoman Ronda Hemminger Evan said.
In Tallahasse, Gov. Jeb Bush said Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy told him "there's no leads, no information" that could help find Jessie. "One can hope for a miracle," Bush said.
Law enforcement officials have turned to 20 experts from the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children to help crack the case.
On Wednesday, the Postal Service and the missing children's center planned to distribute more than 46,000 flyers in Citrus County and in parts of nearby Hernando County, sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney said.
Mark Lunsford has made repeated pleas for his daughter's safe return and expressed confidence she would come home. He said he remains convinced his daughter did not leave home voluntarily even though authorities have uncovered no evidence she was abducted. The child's mother, who lives in Ohio, arrived in the state over the weekend.
I keep waiting for the father to turn off camera and say "Hey Vern, know what I mean?".
Is it me or does something missing in this case, besides Jessica? I mean, just something is just not right with me about this. I'm not saying that the grandparents, father, or mother have anything to do with this, I'm saying that there is just something odd and I can't put my finger on what it is.
Sorry but the way the father twitches a lot makes me think he has a drug problem. I wonder if he owed money to a dealer or something and if this could be related.
In each of these missing child cases I hope against hope that the parents had nothing to do with it.
Well, something about how the timing that Jessica was discovered missing is odd to me. The grandma put her to bed and the dad discovered her gone when he came home the next morning. Ok, does the dad work nights or what?
I agree....something stinks.
Yeah - his constant whimpering routine has me suspicious.
The most likely scenario: She's dead.
This is probably like the Van Damme case. Or the Crowe case, although I believe her brother, not the transient, killed her.
He was supposedly spending the night at a girlfriend's house.
gotta be family or a very close friend. has to be
Her brother? I didn't even know she had a brother. Did he live in the home and what if all possible is your guess why he had something to do with it?
And yes, I believe she is probably dead.
Yep, someone close to the family if not the family. I have a feeling we will know the outcome of this case very soon.
i hope so...not too much is adding up here...why was the little girl not with her mother ?
From what I understand about the case, the mother lived in another state and hasn't even seen her daughter in over 3 years. This may not be correct but I thought I heard that right on Foxnews. Some mother!
jeez..ok..thanks
Still wondering who the dead young female was, who was pulled out of the water in the first few days of this. Not a word, like no one cares about her. "Oh, thats not the one we're looking for, throw her back in"
Could be the grandparents are getting kinda old and forgetful...maybe they didn't lock the door.
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