San Diego, March 01: More than a thousand volunteers scoured a California lake overnight for signs of a missing teenager in what San Diego authorities called an unprecedented response to a missing persons case.
Chelsea King, a 17-year-old honor student at Poway High School in Poway, about 40km north of San Diego, disappeared Thursday while on an after-school run through Rancho Bernardo Community Park, Fox5SanDiego.com reported.
Authorities said Chelsea, a long-distance runner and straight-A student, was last seen at 2pm local time before setting out on a routine jog along an extensive trail system around Lake Hodges.
Police found the teenager’s BMW sedan parked inside the park’s parking lot with her mobile phone inside, the station reported.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, along with the FBI and law enforcement from Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, launched an all-out search for Chelsea using helicopters, infrared devices and search dogs to scour the park’s rugged terrain.
Overnight, dive teams reportedly searched Lake Hodges for any sign of Chelsea, described as 1.67 metres tall with blonde hair and blue eyes and weighing 52kg.
“She’s getting ready to graduate from Poway High School and has tremendous aspirations to change the world,” said family spokeswoman Stephanie Dorian, who called the teen “the most amazing, wonderful, cherished girl”.
San Diego authorities are reportedly working to determine whether there is any connection between the girl’s disappearance and an assault on a woman at the park on December 27.
—Agencies