Jun 20, 2009 9:47 pm US/Central
Search Continues For Indiana Toddler
HOBART, Ind. (CBS) ―
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The search continued Saturday for missing Indiana toddler Jada Justice, who disappeared Tuesday.
CBS
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Jada Justice, 2
FBI Indianapolis
Federal and local investigators did an exhaustive search for Jada Justice on Saturday, but there was still no sign of the missing Northwest Indiana toddler.
According to a relative,
Jada disappeared Tuesday night in Gary.
Her mother's cousin was watching her at the time and claims she left Jada in a car while she ran into a gas station store.
When she returned, the car was there, but Jada was gone.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones was in Hobart for the search and a vigil where family members prayed for Jada's safe return.
Offerings of song and praise filled the air at this vigil for the 2-year-old. Her tearful family joined more than 100 relatives, friends and local residents to pray for the toddler's safe return.
"She knows the Lord and she knows," her mother, Melissa Swiontek, said. "And she's safe and she's waiting to come home tonight. I know she'll be home."
"There's times when I have really bad feelings, and this time I don't feel bad," Jada's grandmother, Lisa Huerta, said. "I don't have that feeling that she's, you know, gone."
And back at the home the child's 18-year-old babysitter shares with her boyfriend, FBI agents continued their search. Sources tell CBS 2 they were hoping to collect traces of blood or other evidence that could lead them to answers in the case.
The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Hobart police spent almost 10 hours scouring woods blocks from the babysitter's home and beyond, but we're told there was no sign of the girl.
Community activists from Chicago hit the streets Saturday afternoon with flyers to try to find witnesses.
"I've been praying for her," one woman told family members.
They hope their pleas for help aid police in solving the case.
"You know, right now, my main focus is Jada, making sure she gets home," the child's father, Clarence Justice, said. "I'm not out to point the finger at nobody."
We're told the father holds no anger or blame in his heart for the babysitter or her boyfriend now. We're told no one is being held in connection with this disappearance.
Another organized search was planned for Monday.
Authorities have offered a cash reward to help find Jada.
Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or Gary police Cmdr. Anthony Titus at (219) 881-1237, (219) 881-1229, (219) 881-1209 or (219) 881-1210.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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