Latest updates on missing Westminster girl, 10 (and where to receive news)
More than 800 volunteers joined Westminster police officers, firefighters and the FBI in a massive search for a 10-year-old girl who disappeared Friday morning during the first three blocks of her walk to school.
Late Saturday night, police said they will bring a new team of search dogs in to help look for the child.
A helicopter was used in the search. Bloodhounds were used through most of Friday night. Although the dogs picked up a scent, it could have been older than Friday morning, Westminster police spokeswoman Cheri Spottke said.
“There were no strong hits,” she said.
A dive team went out on Ketner Lake in late Saturday afternoon to search with sonar for a body in the water, Westminster police spokesman Trevor Materasso said. They found nothing and left the lake around 5 p.m.
Police say they are following up on more than 100 tips about where Jessica may be.
Police are also scanning social media for information about the girl’s possible whereabouts.
Late Saturday evening, the Westminster Police Department sent out a note saying no additional volunteers are needed to help search for the child Sunday.
More than 800 citizen volunteers showed up in the bitter cold and freezing drizzle to search for Jessica on Saturday. Twenty-six times, teams of 50 people were sent out to search areas on foot. The search area covered was from 92nd Avenue to 112th Avenue, Indiana Street to Wadsworth Boulevard.
“This is an absolutely unbelievable outpouring of support,” Westminster Police Chief Lee Birk told a room of 150 volunteers waiting to load buses while more than 350 others stomped through nearby fields. “We accomplished more today than we thought we ever could. We certainly did not anticipate this kind of outpouring of support.”
Still, police urged concerned citizens to keep up with the case by following twitter.com/WestminsterPD and watching the Westminster PD Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Westminster-PD/141296864304 for additional requests for help finding the girl.
Jessica Ridgeway’s mother stood in front of their home at 10768 Moore St. Friday morning and watched until her daughter was out of sight on her way to Witt Elementary School, 10255 W. 104th Drive, Spottke said. That was around 8:30 a.m.
Jessica routinely meets classmates at Chelsea Park, three blocks away, and then the classmates together walk the rest of the way to school together.
But on Friday morning the friends never saw Jessica, Spottke said. Jessica didn’t make it to school, Materasso said.
An Amber Alert, which is a national emergency notification, went out late Friday night after Westminster police were contacted. Also, 12,775 homes received calls from the police department notifying residents of the Amber Alert.
“It’s very concerning,” Spottke said. “She is still a young child. Mom is very distraught.”
Police investigators and volunteers collected socks and other items near Chelsea Park Saturday, Materasso said. The socks were placed in evidence bags.
“We can’t say at this point whether these are or are not related,” he said. Detectives will show the articles of clothing to Jessica’s mother and see if they belong to the girl, he added.
Jessica is 4 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 80 pounds and has blond shoulder-length hair. She has blue eyes and was wearing a black jacket and pink-and-purple glasses.
Spottke said police and firefighters went door-to-door Friday along the route from Jessica’s house to the school, asking residents for permission to search inside their homes and in their yards.
All but a few people complied, she said. Some people said they have small children and asked authorities to return the next morning when the kids were awake to search, she said. In other cases, no one was home.
“We searched all night,” Spottke said at 7:15 a.m. “We’ve switched up teams and we’re going out again right now.”
Authorities have greatly expanded the search area after many more volunteers arrived than were expected. The second shift of searchers will return to the homes where no one answered previously.
Police are reviewing past incidents for a possible connection, including the attempted abduction on Memorial Day of a 22-year-old female jogger at Ketner Lake in Westminster. A man tried to put a chemical-soaked rag over her mouth. The woman was able to fight her way free and called 911.
“It’s definitely something that we’re looking at,” Spottke said.
The woman’s assailant was described as white, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with brown hair and an average build. He was wearing a blue cap, a black T-shirt, jeans and small rimmed sunglasses.
Another jogger was chased by a man with a similar description in July 2010, police said, warning those who use the area.
Authorities have checked up on every registered sex offender in the area to confirm their location. Flyers are being posted at businesses up and down Wadsworth Boulevard and left at residences.
Jessica’s mother, who works a night shift, had slept through the call advising that the girl had not arrived at Witt Elementary and so the search did not begin until around 4:30 p.m. Friday
Officials contacted the child’s father, who lives in Missouri. Materasso said the family in Missouri attended a child custody hearing there concerning Jessica Friday. He said he does not know the outcome of the hearing, but detectives do not believe it’s related to Jessica’s disappearance.
“At this time we don’t have any indication he is involved in any way,” Spottke said.
Jessica is a good child and a good student, Spottke said. Officials contacted every child in her class and all friends to see if she may have gone to one of their homes, but there was no sign of her.
The other adults in Jessica’s home include her grandmother and aunt.
Kirk Mitchell
Is it possibly related to these earlier abduction attempts in the area? Did they find this guy?
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ … -abduction
A search on the DP site brings up reports of a number of attempts in the last year. Scary.
I certainly hope they are able to find her unharmed and reunite her with her family. This is a very scary situation and I can only imagine what her family must be going through right now. The previous attempted abductions that happened are unsettling also. I was unaware of them.
Thank you to the Office Depot on 92nd and Sheridan for making 500 colored copies of Jessica’s flyer today at no charge!!! Thank you for supporting our community!!!!
Could just be a coincidence, but the hearing related to the custody dispute was on the same day ?
This is just getting to be more eerily like the Kayleah Wilson tragedy. Missing girl, close in age, amber alert not issued til late, large fruitless search… Kayleah was found in the water of a ditch not far from where she was taken. There’s one that runs along 108th near where Jessica lived. I’d check there.
They’re checking the reservoir apparently.
Even if they don’t have legal cause, I would let them in because they have a logical cause and priorities that rise above your politically paranoid rhetoric. They have a missing girl who may be in danger. Asking to look through your house and yard isn’t an accusation, its an elimination. The faster they can narrow down where the girl “isn’t” the better. Any house they couldn’t verify as not being her location is going to eat up more resources in their efforts to find the girl. Anyone who obstructs the search is a possible suspect.
Typically courts award custody to the mother, and some fathers fall out in such situations or see the children as pawns to get back at the mother with. It’s simply the track record of history. There have also been instances where the dad has custody and the mom abducts the kid, but in general because mothers typically retain custody, fathers are more likely to be perpetrators.
Keep a close eye on your kids, it’s a different world. Hope they find her safe.
We hear and read these type of stories far to often. It breaks my heart … these are our children for Christ’s sake.
I pray she’s found safe n’ sound.
We searched some last night and were stunned to see hundreds of people at the rec center volunteering to search this morning. Robert Ramirez’s wife was there in a campaign t-shirt. C’mon politicians–give it a rest on this day!
We were split up into groups with a few policemen in each. Our group searched the park and open space trails near her house. Sadly, we didn’t find anything. Police from Broomfield were there as well–they must have called up every officer in the county–they are all over. Police stopped us near the rec center this morning and looked in our car. They are really doing a great job on this. I just pray they find Jessica.
Question for someone involved in the search (or that knows about search dogs) ; Would last night’s weather have completely erased her scent from the area directly around the house ? No strong hits at all from the dog/dogs seems odd if she left the house less than twelve hours earlier than dogs were called in.
Also, do the dogs and handlers brought in from other areas have more experience than the new search dog that Westminster just got ?
The more time that goes by, the more questions come up. Just hard to believe nobody saw anything. I hope for the best, but am thinking there is something wrong with the story about her vanishing so close to home without Mom seeing anything (no cars, no vans, no people) as she watched the girl walk away.
Hope more info comes along as the investigation continues.
Thank goodness that so many people in the community cared enough to show up to help.
The “Mommy Code” would prevent abductions that are based on luring, rather than physical force.
Here’s what probably happened: Jessica is walking to the park. Nice looking man slows his car alongside her and offers her a ride to school, maybe telling her he had hot chocolate in the car, that the car was warm, etc.
She gets in…
HOWEVER, what if she had said, “Do you know the Mommy Code?”
The man would have sped off.
The Mommy Code is the code word that a stranger must tell a child before that child goes off with that stranger. It’s a code that’s impossible to forget, and impossible to routinely bring up in the course of conversation. An example would be counting backwards from 100 by fives.
If a stranger can’t deliver the Mommy Code, the child knows to RUN LIKE HELL.
This is SO easy. Why does it escape most parents? Again, this works only if the abduction is based on luring rather than physical force
This is so sad…my sisters are out and about looking as they live in the same neighborhood. This is scary business, i have SIX nieces and nephews in this neighborhood. i pray they find this young girl, I can’t imagine how her mothers feel. God bless them all in this hard time.
Thanks for being out there to search. I hope she is found unharmed and returned safe and sound to her family.
9 News has reported that there IS a custody battle with the parents and there seems to be a report that a black SUV may have been involved. Still nothing to come to a conclusion about but many times these things do end up being within the family. I hope that she is safe… if this is a family problem than she probably is safe.
Folks you’re going to think I am anal retentive, but I walked my youngest daughter or driven her to the school doors, and been there everyday the girl got out of school, from grade school to now high school. I love my girls too much perhaps, but this world isn’t right, and it’s filled with many an evil heart. If I can just get this one last kid raised I’ll be happy.
My prayers go out to the parents of this little girl, I sure hope they find her safe!
You linked two unrelated events. A black sedan was seen in Arvada driving around a few weeks ago. That may or may not be related. 9news says the police went to the father’s house in Missouri and that they didn’t suspect his involvement.
My kids are not yet school-aged; Im wondering how often kids miss school without a call-in from a parent?
FYI: We have all shut off our ringers at work, and just forgot to turn the ringer back on. Im not suspicious at all of the fact that mom slept all day and never got the calls.
Just wondering what the protocol is for kids missing school?
I hope so badly Jessica is safe somewhere.
Yes, the black vehicle apparently may not be directly related (thats what I get from listening to my wife
) to this situation but… I acknowledge that the police don’t suspect the father’s involvement but there IS a custody battle still could be more than jsut a conicidence, just saying.