Actor Joins Search For Missing Girl
Weeks of intensive searching over thousands of rugged acres in California's Monterey County have failed to uncover any trace of 13-year-old Christina Williams, who disappeared June 12 from Seaside, Calif.
Now, screen star Clint Eastwood, the former mayor of Carmel, Calif., and a Monterey County resident, has joined the effort, reports CBS station KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Eastwood is making public service announcements in hopes of generating leads in the case.
KPIX-TV's Len Ramirez ReportsOther celebrities who are helping out include pop icon Mariah Carey and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson.
CBS 'This Morning' Co-Anchor Mark McEwen spoke this week with the girl's parents, Michael and Alice Williams, and with FBI agent George Grotz, for the latest developments in this case.
Authorities called off the search earlier this month and say they are now focused on the purely investigative aspects of her case, while search teams remain on standby. A large volunteer force has been mobilized, mostly to hand out fliers and to field calls.
FBI on the Web: People with any information about this case should call the FBI hotline at 1-800-671-3343 or go to the FBI website at www.fbi.gov.
According to Grotz, the FBI has followed up on more than 4,500 leads. On July 1, the bureau released enhanced sketches of the two suspects by Jean Boylan, a world-renowned sketch artist. Boylan has worked with the FBI on major cases such as the UNAbomber, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Polly Klaas case.
"Her technique is to conduct in depth interviews with witnesses and let them give descriptions to her, as opposed to the traditional methods of utilizing pre-existing facial 'identi-kits'," says Grotz
The FBI is continuing to eliminate vehicles and suspects, going through individuals brought to the bureau's attention by either behavior patterns or similarities to the sketches or both. "It is a painstaking process, going through interviewing and assessing and eliminating," Grotz says.
The majority of tips come into the tip line from the Seaside/Ft. Ord area, or from interviews of people in the neighborhood and areas where witnesses have seen the suspected vehicle.
"We asked people in area with children to talk to children to see if there was something they did not report to parents or if parents heard something from kids that did not seem significant at the time but might be," says Grotz.
Christina disappeared when she was walking her dog near her home at Fort Ord, a former militay base in Seaside, Calif. Her dog returned home, but Christina did not.
In the past month, authorities have released revised sketches of the most likely suspects: two Asian or Pacific Islander men in their late teens or early 20s who were driving a gray Ford Grenada or Mercury Monarch. Officials have also expanded the search for Christina beyond her hometown.