Feb 28, 2005 2 min read

HOMOSASSA, Fla. (AP) – Searchers spent a fourth day scouring roads and woods surrounding a missing girl’s home Sunday but found nothing that brought them closer to finding the 9-year-old. Jessica Marie Lunsford was last seen Wednesday night in her bedroom. Her father discovered she was missing the next morning.

Police have said a door at the home was unlocked and one of the third-grader’s dolls was gone.

Despite heavy rain and a tornado watch, nearly 540 volunteers turned out to comb the rural community of 2,300 people, about 60 miles north of Tampa.

Fanning out on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicles, they searched residential areas, the shoulders of a four-lane highway about a half-mile from the girl’s house and the 3,000-acre Withlacoochee State Forest, located about four miles away.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said the girl’s disappearance is not a confirmed abduction and he has not ruled out any possibilities.

“The leads that are coming in are not generating us in any one direction. We’re not getting anything that’s going to move this case forward at this time,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Ronda Hemminger Evan said.

Today would likely be the last day of the wide search, Evan said.

Authorities also said a man photographed with two children at a convenience store near Lunsford’s home hours after the girl vanished was not involved in her disappearance. Investigators initially released a surveillance camera picture of the man because they believed it could hold clues.

___

On the Net:

Citrus County Sheriff: http://www.sheriffcitrus.org/