The search for missing 2-year-old Jahi Turner intensified yesterday as 70 members of the Sheriff's Search and Rescue team combed canyons and ravines of Balboa Park near an area where the toddler's stepfather said he last saw the boy one month ago.
Trained trackers, dogs and other experienced search personnel converged on a cul-de-sac near Russ Boulevard and 30th Street in Golden Hill Park about 7 a.m. and fanned out into steep terrain, some of it covered with thick undergrowth adjacent to the Balboa Park Golf Course.
"We are not necessarily looking for a victim – and not necessarily for the obvious," said sheriff's reserve Capt. Dave Miller. "But we are looking for any clues."
The area has been searched several times since Jahi was reported missing from a nearby park play area April 25.
But this search was somewhat different.
"We have some specially trained personnel involved," said San Diego police robbery-unit Sgt. Judy Woods. "This terrain is very rough and unyielding; it takes a special eye."
In addition to a body, searchers were looking for clothing, freshly turned earth, disturbed vegetation and evidence of a struggle or foul play.
Authorities stressed they were not acting on any specific tip. But Woods said the finding last week of remains of Chandra Levy, who had been missing from the Washington, D.C., area for about a year, could have been a factor in the new search.
"As odd as it may seem, some people have become inspired," Woods said, referring to the new effort after the Levy discovery.
Levy's remains were found in an area that also previously had been searched.
Yet, after a day-long effort yesterday, nothing of significance was found and it was unclear if more law enforcement searches would continue over the Memorial Day holiday.
The renewed effort by law enforcement was cheered by members of Jahi's family and a small army of citizen volunteers who had been searching for the boy on their own.
Police said Jahi's grandmother, who has been spearheading a volunteer effort, rushed to the new Balboa Park search area early yesterday believing a body had been found. She was concerned she had not been notified of a break in the case.
After learning of the purpose of the search, she returned to lead private volunteer efforts, which also continued yesterday.
Those volunteers, faced with money woes and waning interest, have been struggling to muster enough people to keep up their search and disappointed in a perceived drop in law enforcement participation in the search.
Authorities had not conducted any official search for Jahi since concluding an unprecedented operation May 6 at the Miramar landfill, where up to 100 officers a day worked almost around the clock for six days, sifting 5,000 tons of trash collected from the area where the boy was said to have disappeared.
About the same time, organizers scaled back a massive search effort in which more than 1,100 volunteers scoured 18 square miles of canyons and handed out 28,000 fliers over 40 square miles of the city.
However, a team of San Diego police robbery detectives continued to press the investigation, which has been classified as an abduction.
Detectives are known to be continuing to check the story of Jahi's stepfather, Tieray Jones, who told authorities the boy was missing from a playground near 28th and Cedar streets after Jones left him to get a soda at a vending machine.
Police have expressed doubts about the story and say there is no evidence the boy was at the playground that day.
Jahi's disappearance is San Diego's second high-profile missing-child case since February – that of Danielle van Dam, whose body was found in rural East County. A neighbor of the Sabre Springs girl, David Westerfield, faces trial in connection with that case.
Joe Hughes: (619) 542-4591; joe.hughes@uniontrib.com
