9-Year-Old Jessica Lunsford Still Missing

More than 500 volunteers searching in the rain and wind and hundreds of tips received by authorities in the past four days have yet to turn up any clues in the disappearance of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Homosassa, Florida who vanished from her bedroom Wednesday night.

By all accounts, Jessica Lunsford was a happy, well-adjusted third grader who attended school and church regularly and never left her grandparents' house, where she lived with her father, without asking permission.

Jessica Lunsford
Family photo

When her father, Mark Lunsford, returned to the house Thursday morning, after spending the night with his girlfriend, he went into her room and found her missing. None of her clothes or shoes were missing. The only article missing from the room was a favorite stuffed animal.

As hundreds of volunteers searched the west-central Florida woods and marshes near Jessica's home, authorities had few real leads in her disappearance. Reportedly all family members had passed polygraph tests in connection with the case. The hard drive of the family's computer was searched and nothing indicated any suspicious correspondence.

Saturday, authorities turned up a video from a security camera in a nearby convenience store that showed a man with a young girl who looked similar to Jessica in the store in the early Thursday morning hours, but family members said it was not Jessica in the video.

Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton, who is from Homosassa, posted a $25,000 reward to help locate Jessica.

See Also:
No Signs Found of Missing Homosassa Third-Grader