Search for missing VT student Morgan Harrington finds no new leads
The volunteer effort to find a missing Virginia Tech student resumes this morning in Charlottesville.
By Rex Bowman
777-3523
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- A massive search by 360 volunteers Friday apparently turned up no new leads in the disappearance of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, but organizers said they will return to the job today and Sunday.
Volunteers from across Virginia turned out to take part in the search across 2 square miles of Charlottesville.
Working in teams of 10, they formed lines to walk through woods and up and down slopes. They peeped into culverts, peered under parked cars and poked through piles of leaves with sticks. They also looked into the windows of abandoned homes and climbed through the underbrush of some of Charlottesville's woollier neighborhoods.
Each team spent between two and four hours scouring the area assigned to it, and some teams went out more than once. The Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, which organized the three-day search, anticipates as many as 1,000 people could repeat the effort today.
Harrington, of Roanoke County, has been missing three weeks. The 20-year-old vanished from an Oct. 17 Metallica concert here, and though investigators and her family continue to speak publicly of their hopes of finding her alive -- the possible victim of an abduction -- search organizers let volunteers know early Friday that might not be the case.
"If at any time during your search you smell an odor of decay, you need to try to determine if you can find the source of that odor," Dawn Davis of the recovery center said at the Virginia Department of Forestry headquarters building, which had been turned into a makeshift "Morgan Search Center."
"If the worst has happened and you come across Morgan, you need to stop immediately -- notify your team leader," Davis said.
But the daylong search turned up no trace of Harrington. Bob Smither, co-founder of the Laura Recovery Center, said 360 searchers in 39 teams combed about 2 square miles of the city. One team found tattered pieces of black fabric near the track where Harrington's purse was recovered, but he said it would be difficult to call it a significant find. "The state police warned us when we started this that we were going to find all kinds of clothes."
Harrington was wearing an all-black outfit, including black tights, when she disappeared. Her purse and cellphone were found the following day in a grassy parking area on the southeast edge of the Lannigan Field track. The black fabric -- possibly torn pieces of clothing -- was found at the north end of the track.
Chelsea Helm, a 21-year-old Tech student and friend of Harrington's, was among those who participated Friday. "You want to do whatever you can to get information and accomplish something instead of just sitting around," said Helm, of Roanoke County, explaining why she left Blacksburg at 6 a.m. to get to Charlottesville to help with the search.
Volunteer searchers started streaming into the Department of Forestry headquarters shortly after 8 a.m. Among them were search-and-rescue teams from across the state. Organizers lectured the volunteers on how to mark items that might be evidence and told them to look in particular for a necklace Morgan was wearing that had three large chain links in front. State police investigators had not mentioned the necklace previously.
Before she went missing Harrington had gone to the restroom but ended up outside the John Paul Jones Arena, unable to re-enter. In a cellphone conversation with her friends, she told them she might try to get a ride home with friends in Charlottesville. She was last seen about 9:30 that night walking on the Copeley Road bridge, just south of the arena.
Harrington, who has blue eyes and blond hair, was last seen wearing a black miniskirt, a black T-shirt with the name of metal band Pantera across the front, black tights and black knee-high boots.
Police searched the area around the bridge and arena several times without luck. But those who participated in Friday's hunt said they were hopeful the intense volunteer effort would help find Harrington.
"When you get a large pool of people from the community, a large group of people, they can do so much more on the ground than the police can do," said volunteer Jon Guillot of Charlottesville.
The Laura Recovery Center, founded in memory of Smither's daughter, who was 12 when she was abducted and slain, hopes to have a 3-square-mile area searched by the end of the effort late Sunday.
Harrington's mother, Gil, spoke to volunteers who had gathered in a briefing room before they set out on Friday's search, thanking them for their help. "People are so good," she said. "I also recognize there is evil in the world. But, as is obvious in this room, there's more good, and good will prevail."
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/225432 
The University of Virginia Police Department is seeking information that would help locate a missing person. Morgan Dana Harrington, a 20 year old student from Virginia Tech, was last seen on October 17, 2009 near the John Paul Jones Arena.
Morgan was last seen wearing a black t-shirt with the tan letters that spelled “Pantera” across the front, a black mini skirt with black tights and knee high black boots. She has long blond hair and blue eyes. Morgan is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs approximately 120 lbs.
If you have seen Morgan Dana Harrington or have knowledge of her whereabouts contact the University of Virginia Police Department at 434-924-7166.
http://www.virginia.edu/uvapolice/missing.html