Investigation continues for missing student

TERRE HAUTE -- For nearly eight weeks, posters featuring a missing 20-year-old have appeared in restaurant windows and on seemingly every grocery store checkout counter in the city.\nYet despite the publicity and a $15,000 reward for information about Scott Javins' whereabouts, his disappearance in May remains unsolved.\n"Right now we can't pin down a motive for his disappearance," said Vigo County sheriff's Lt. Steve Barnhart, who has led the investigation since the beginning. "We have some information but we need a whole lot more."\nThe last known contact Javins had with anyone was on May 24, when his mother called his cell phone at 2 a.m. He was planning to drive to his parents' home in northern Vigo County from a party in Terre Haute, but he never arrived.\nDuring the nearly two-month investigation, police have received about 100 tips, Sheriff Bill Harris told The Tribune-Star for a story Wednesday.\n While the tips have focused on a suspected carjacking or robbery, police are considering other possibilities, including a theory about a drug connection.\n "I hope we can deliver a $15,000 reward check to someone," Harris said. "Someone out there knows."\n The investigation has included searches by airplane, boat and ground for any trace of Javins, an Indiana State University student, or his silver 2002 Honda Si with paper plates.\nTips about the car have come in from around the Midwest. Recently, a tip in Indianapolis produced a car that matched the description of Javins' car exactly but had a different owner.\nAnd still, there's hope that Javins, for whatever reason, may have slipped out of town without telling friends or family. While detectives acknowledge that's not likely, it remains a missing person case.\n"We're not giving up hope," Merv Javins, the missing man's father said. "But as time goes on, you have to wonder what happened"