They are doing a GREAT job of getting the word out and getting searchers out! (More pictures at link)
Major Search Efforts for Missing Poway Teen
By MICHELLE WAYLAND
Updated 10:51 AM PST, Fri, Feb 26, 2010
The parents of a Poway High School student are pleading for the public’s help to find their missing daughter, as
resources from around the state join the major search effort.
“Anybody out there, if you know anything, please just help us bring her home. She’s such a good girl, she needs to come home,” Kelly King said.
Her daughter, 17-year-old Chelsea King, went for a run about 2 p.m. Thursday at Rancho Bernardo Community Park. When it got dark and her parents hadn't heard from her, they became worried and called police.
Deputies were able to track the long-distance runner’s cell phone and find her car at the park.
Multiple agencies are searching a 20 square mile area. The entire San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept. Search and Rescue team was at the scene, along with San Diego police and canine units.
“
We’ve had Astrea up here in the air for hours,” Sheriff’s Dept. spokesperson Jan Caldwell said. “We’re right in the middle of a very active, aggressive search mission to find Chelsea.”
Investigators
called in extra units from around the state to help search the spider web of trails in that area.
"We want to find this young person immediately and reunite her with her family. If she's... injured we want to get her warm and safe and medical care," Caldwell said.
A reverse 911 was also put in place to get the word out to the surrounding area.
“We still have not located her and we’re just praying for Chelsea to get home and find us,” her father Brent King said at a press conference Friday morning.
A television reporter at the scene described the search effort as one of the biggest she’s ever seen.
Hundreds of friends were searching for the missing teen overnight, but officials said their scent could complicate the search.
Instead, they have set up a base camp at the Rancho Bernardo Glassman Recreation Center and are making flyers, which they plan to distribute as far south as Tijuana and as far north as Los Angeles.
“All the volunteers that are out there now and they’ve been out there all night, thank you,” Chelsea’s mother said.
Investigators say Chelsea lives in Poway and knows the area well -- especially the running trails.
“She’s known to be a good runner, a fast runner and real strong and just loves to run,” Caldwell said.
Friends say Chelsea is a college-bound senior at Poway high school and well liked by everyone. They're stunned by her disappearance.
"I'm incredibly worried. I mean she's like my best friend I can't even describe what I feel," Mckenzie Lamont said. "She's responsible, she never gets into trouble. This is just out of her character."
Chelsea had run cross-country for Poway High and friends say it wasn't uncommon for her to run for hours at a time. She was also a peer counselor and played the French horn. Lamont says when she didn't show up for symphony Thursday night -- they got worried.
"I think everyone's still in their shock phase. This doesn't feel real to anyone yet," Chelsea's friend Susan Rudiger said. "We're just trying to keep our negative thoughts inside right now and really just try to stay positive in a time like this."
“She must be an amazing person because there are a lot of friends and family that are standing here,” Caldwell said. “That’s a testimony to the kind of girl that she is.”
Chelsea is described as having strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes; she’s about 5 foot 5 inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. If you have any information regarding her whereabouts, please contact investigators.
“Anything you can do, look at her picture, look for her, please keep your eyes and ears open and pray for her,” her father pleaded.
