Police search for missing 6-year-old Ariz. girl

This undated photo provided by the Tucson Police Dept. shows Isabel Mercedes Celis. Tucson police are searching for a 6-year-old girl who went missing from her home on the city's east side. Isabel Mercedes Celis was last seen late Friday and discovered to be missing at about 8 a.m. Saturday, April 21, 2012. / AP Photo/Tucson Police Dept.

(AP) TUCSON, Ariz. - The overnight disappearance of a 6-year-old Arizona girl triggered a massive search Saturday by scores of police, FBI agents and a large contingent of deputy U.S. Marshals as officials investigated the possibility that she might have been kidnapped or just wandered off.

First-grader Isabel Mercedes Celis's parents last saw her in bed at 11 p.m. Friday, and they discovered her missing at about 8 a.m. Saturday, said Tucson police spokeswoman Sgt. Maria Hawke.

Police continued to search an area of Tucson around East Broadway Boulevard and Craycroft Road late into the afternoon using street patrols, canines, detectives and a helicopter.

Hawke said investigators were looking into all potential scenarios, including the possibility that Isabel got up and wandered out of the home she shares with her parents and two brothers or that she was kidnapped.

Investigators also were examining every door and window of the house for signs of a break-in, Hawke said.

Both parents live in the home, so police had no indication a child custody dispute was involved but weren't completely ruling it out.

The working-class neighborhood of single-family homes is sandwiched between a large shopping mall to the east and businesses and Catholic school to the west.

"Because of the possibly existing that this child could have been abducted, we're treating it as if it's that significant," Hawke said Saturday afternoon. "We don't want to be caught behind the ball by not exploring that possibility."

Hawke says at least 75 law enforcement officers were involved, possibly as many as 100, as more resources continue to arrive to help in the search and investigate the disappearance.

Isabel is described as just under 4-feet-tall and weighing 44 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes.

[rmorris44]

To Knewsterrr, you are a selfish, self-centered person, who gives you the right to judge the parents of children who are abducted? You don't have a clue, do you? The parents of this little girl pay taxes, they both work...or didn't you read that part? They deserve all the help they can get from the law...whatever the cost. I hope to God that you don't have children and if you do, I feel sorry for them.

[MomsHugs]

Please don't jump to conclusions on such early reports. Locked doors did not keep Elizabeth Smart from being abducted by a skinny man who squeezed through a narrow kitchen window at night when her parents were sound asleep & despite a younger child in her room. Neither did locked doors & several other girls keep Polly Klaas from being abducted. John Walsh has done his very best trying to find the man who abducted his little son & that took a prisoner finally confessing how many decades later?

Let's give this little girl's family our support. They don't need 2nd guessing or judgments - they need sharp eyes & alertness from the public.

[httpwwwnews]

If the police don't find any sign of break in then they'd best look at the parents. Many a child has been abused to the point of death and the parents hide the little one's remains. Sad....

[smittyc]

I hope and pray they find her alive and unharmed.

[Nonni06]

There should be alarms installed in homes of children. This is the third case of child abduction from the home in the past year or so. Brazen, appalling times we live in.

[underdogcity]

Some families can't afford it, but I agree with you. It's one thing when a child disappears to and from school, but taken from their home...and the family members don't have a clue as to when they left...

This is real a long shot, but I hope they find her, unharmed.

[Molly-Pchr]

How do we go from 11 pm to 8 am without checking on a child that young, even in the home? I still check on my kids throughout the night, the oldest 12, just a peek into the room. I also have surveillance cameras around my house filming all night, basement, front of the house and back/sides, and alarms. Good investment, not expensive, worth it if you have kids to protect. You just never know.