Bloomington teenager remains missing

WEST LAFAYETTE -- After no new evidence was found in the search for Purdue University freshman Wade Steffey's cell phone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children joined the case Sunday. \n"The search is basically wrapped up," said Capt. Tim Potts of the Purdue University Police Department. "We found a lot of articles but we didn't find the cell phone, not yet."\nAfter a prayer vigil that was held Saturday for Steffey, who has been missing for more than a week, hundreds showed up to search for the phone Saturday, in hopes it would provide clues to the whereabouts of the National Merit Scholar, who is from Bloomington.\nSteffey, 19, was last seen at a Phi Kappa Theta fraternity party Jan. 13. He left without notifying any friends, said Megan Priest, who said she was with Steffey before and during the party. Priest said Steffey was not drinking at the party.\nOn Friday, Dale Steffey, the missing student's father, said that "with Verizon's cooperation, they've been able to get an area where his cell phone is likely to be. It's about a half-square mile on Purdue's campus."\nThe search began with Potts notifying the crowd of people who finished praying for help in finding Steffey's cell phone.\nPotts then directed the crowd of more than 200 that he wanted everyone to form a chain-link to do a blanket search of the areas where the phone was thought to be located.\n"If there is a shrub or something in front of you, go through that shrub," Potts said. "Jostle it around a little bit to see if anything falls out. Make your way around the obstacle and resume your course. If you find something, do not pick it up. If it's evidence we need to make sure it's in that state before we touch it."\nVolunteers were spotted looking in holes, ditches, drains and trash containers. Sharon Taylor, a resident of West Lafayette, was inside a trash bin tearing open trash bags for anything of significance.\n"This means a lot to me. I'm a single mom and I just can't imagine the experience," Taylor said. "If it was my daughter, I would want people doing the same thing. So I'm going to give it everything I can for them. I hope we find something, and if we don't, I'll be back."\nAt a news conference in the armory at Purdue, Wade Steffey's parents, Dale Steffey and Dawn Adams, both mentioned how they've been dealing with the search procedures.\n"We're getting pretty exhausted," Adams said. "But we had some more adrenaline to run on today, and hopefully we can run on that longer."\nWhile both parents were working on little rest and low energy, they still voiced some optimism in the search.\n"I thought it was a good chance that we could find that phone," Dale Steffey said, choking up. "And it could still turn up today. ... We are running out of steam right now."\nJeanne Norberg, a Purdue spokeswoman, was witness to the outcry of support.\n"The love of strangers has been amazing," Norberg said. "We had a search earlier this week and we put out an alert at 11 o'clock for a 2 o'clock search, and we had 400 people who showed up. We had so many people, we couldn't use any more."\nNorberg said Steffey may have gone back to Owen Residence Hall at around 12:30 a.m. to recover his jacket he left there earlier that night. Steffey's last two calls that were made with his cell phone were to people that lived in Owen, Norberg said.\nPriest said Steffey made two calls at 12:20 a.m. and 12:31 a.m. The first call was to Ron LoBianco, a freshman at Purdue who lives in Owen. The second was to a woman named Andrea.\n"He called me and asked what I was up to, and I just told him that I was still playing poker," LoBianco said. "He was like, 'Oh, you're still there,' and I said yeah, and he said, 'Well, if you're doing anything else, give me a call. If not, I'll just talk to you tomorrow.'"\nLoBianco reported not hearing anything different in Steffey's voice and that the conversation only lasted 15 seconds, according to his phone.\nThe investigation will continue today with the arrival of an expert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a Purdue University Police Department news release.\n"It's sort of hard to picture an accidental circumstance, but we're trying to remain open to all possibilities," Dale Steffey said. "... If he's with someone against his will, he could be anywhere. So we hope that people anywhere will look for him and notice people around him and anything unusual. We don't know where he'll turn up or when, but we're going to keep looking."\nSteffey's parents set up a reward fund Friday that is being administered by Fifth Third Bank in Central Indiana.\nSee www.idsnews.com for additional photos, audio and video clips of interviews with Steffey's family and friends.