The search continues for missing ISU student

The search for Scott Javins will get a financial boost this weekend as family and friends will hold a series of car wash fundraisers around Terre Haute to raise money.\nJavins, 20, of Terre Haute, left a friend's house at about 2 a.m. nearly two weeks ago, in the early morning hours of May 24. The Indiana State University student talked to his mother on his cellular phone to tell her he was on the way home.\nWhen he didn't return by 5 a.m., his parents knew something was wrong and began calling his friends to see if anyone knew where he was.\nJavins had been spending a quiet night in with his long-time friends, playing euchre and talking as was usual for the tight-knit group.\n"When he left my house he was fine, he was normal," said CC Brown, a friend of Javins since elementary school. "Scott usually tries to get sleep before going to work. He's just really responsible like that. Scott is the type where I knew he was going home." \nWhen Brown received a phone call from Javins' mother informing her that he never arrived home, she immediately called every friend she could think of. No one had seen a trace of him.\n"Instantly, I knew something was wrong. That's just not Scott," Brown said.\nBrown spent the early morning hours driving around roads all over town, thinking maybe he had fallen asleep or driven off the road. \n"During the day, we were like, how could he make us worry like this? By that night we filed a report," she said.\nThe reaction from police was disappointing at best. \n"He said, 'We don't get excited about a missing 20-year-old,'" Brown said the police told her.\nJavins' loved ones decided to take the search into their own hands. \n"We painted this town with fliers," Brown said. "Our whole group of friends worked together. The next day we noticed that almost every poster had been torn down. We thought maybe somebody knows something."\nLt. Barnhart of the Terre Haute Police Department said an All-Points Bulletin was put on Javins' vehicle within 24 hours of the report being filed. \nScott had purchased a new car 10 days before his disappearance. His silver Honda Civic SI is the only one of its kind that's been sold in Vigo County. Barnhart said four aerial searches have been done so far, but no solid evidence has been discovered. \nThe tips he has received have placed Javins in several places in the city that night in activities suggesting foul play. Nothing has been recovered from the tips. There has been no activity on his cell phone or credit card. Brown said Javins had about $50 when he disappeared.\n"A lot of people are calling in, saying they have seen a silver car. But nothing has come up," Barnhart said. "The two ways we are looking at it right now is that he was intoxicated and ran off the road, or that he ran into trouble in the neighborhood."\nBrown admits that Javins "had a few beers that night," but maintains he was responsible. She believes this fact should not have affected the police investigation the way it did. Other friends agree that he was not the type to be involved in drug use or other misconduct.\n"That's not like him. He's not into that kind of stuff," said Matt Cole, a high school friend and junior at IU. "He's got it real well at home, so he has no reason to leave." \nIn more than four years of employment at Paitson Bros. True Value, Javins had missed only one day of work. When he missed work Friday morning and did not call in, all his loved ones knew there was a serious problem. They feel the authorities could have done more sooner, but are pleased with the effort being put into the investigation now.\n"I think they did what they could," said Merv Javins, Scott's father. "With it being a holiday weekend I understood. I've been told it's normal to wait a few days when a 20-year-old kid is missing. But Scott's not a normal kid. He would never just leave."\nAfter spending many hours searching on foot and by car, Javins' family and friends are taking up a new approach. This weekend they will hold four car washes to raise money for a reward fund. Two funds have been set up at local banks as well, one by Javins' father and one by Brown. They hope money raised this weekend will be a large supplement to that.\n"This is, even so far, so financially draining," Brown said. "We had to set a P.O. box and just all the searching; even gas money, honestly. We can only search so many hours on foot."\nFamily and friends will run all the carwashes in hopes that their search will go on as police keep investigating their own tips.\n"I'm really hoping one of the officers will be really dedicated," Brown said. "You know, I've lost three friends in my life to accidents, but this is a different kind of pain. It's like a question in my mind. \n"With my other friends, it was an accident. We had closure. But this is mind-boggling"