Friday, November 06, 2009
Large turnout expected in Charlottesville search for Morgan Harrington
Organizers say as many as 1,000 could turn out to search for the missing Virginia Tech student.
Photo courtesy of the Harrington family
Morgan Harrington was last seen Oct. 17 in Charlottesville.
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Matt Chittum | The Roanoke Times
Ongoing coverage
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Organizers of a three-day search for missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington said Thursday night they anticipate up to 1,000 volunteers could show up here today for the kickoff of the effort. But despite the expected turnout, they are continuing to urge residents around the state to converge on Charlottesville to take part in the search for any trace of the Roanoke County woman.
Thursday night, more than 300 volunteers arrived at Charlottesville's Cavalier Inn, not far from where the 20-year-old was last seen Oct. 17, to attend a meeting at which organizers briefed them on the logistics of the massive search. Organizers hope to have teams of volunteers out in the neighborhoods, back streets and wooded areas of Charlottesville from 9 a.m. until dark today, Saturday and Sunday.
Though police have repeatedly searched the area where Harrington disappeared, leaders of the community search said they will be able to expand the search area to a one-mile radius by Sunday evening if the anticipated volunteers show up.
"We just know there will be a lot of people," said Janice Liggett, volunteer coordinator for the Laura Recovery Center, which is organizing the search. "We're expecting a thousand. And if not Friday, then Saturday." The expectation that people will come from across Virginia to take part in the search prompted organizers to change the assembly area for volunteers to a larger site. The new assembly area is at the Virginia Department of Forestry headquarters at 900 Natural Resources Drive, and organizers hope volunteers can show up as early as 9 a.m. on each of the three search days.
"We should be able to cover an awful lot of ground," said Bob Smither, co-founder of the Laura Recovery Center. "It's a numbers game. We are looking for the needle in the haystack." The Texas-based center was founded in memory of Smither's daughter, who was 12 when she was abducted and murdered. The center works to help find missing children.
Harrington vanished during a Metallica concert she was attending with friends at the John Paul Jones Arena when she went to a restroom and ended up outside the building, unable to get back in. In a cellphone conversation with her friends, she told them she might try to find a ride home with friends in Charlottesville while they stayed and watched the show.
She was last seen south of the arena on the Copeley Road bridge about 9:30 p.m. Her purse and cellphone, minus its battery, were found in a grassy parking area nearby the next day.
Video: Search for Morgan Harrington gets underway
Video by Chris Zaluski | The Roanoke Times
Smither said volunteers will be sent out in teams of 10 to scour different areas of the city, starting with the Copeley Road bridge. Each team will likely spend between two and four hours searching before returning to Natural Resources Drive to report in.
Harrington's parents, Dan and Gil, attended the Thursday night briefing and thanked volunteers for their help in searching for their daughter. "We are so humbled in seeing the people who have come out to help us," Dan Harrington said. "She is out there somewhere. Someone has had to have seen something."
State police have received about 350 calls on the agency's tip line at (434) 352-3467, and a reward of more than $150,000 has been established for information leading to the location and recovery of Harrington.
She has blue eyes and blond hair, stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 120 pounds. She 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.
