Cops Resume Hunt For N.D. Student

Volunteers Comb Snow-Swept Farm Fields In Search For Dru Sjodin

(CBS/AP)  Volunteer searchers have turned up several “items of interest” in the disappearance of a University of North Dakota student, but nothing that has led investigators to Dru Sjodin.

Police sifted through discarded paper, clothes and other items gathered by hundreds of volunteers — some on their knees in the snow — in hopes of finding a cell phone or other links to Sjodin, who was last heard from over the weekend.

Grand Forks police said 1,300 people volunteered on Tuesday to join the search, a response so overwhelming they asked others to stay home late in the day.

The search resumed Wednesday, but only law enforcement personnel took part. Authorities also are awaiting results from the state crime lab, which is analyzing Sjodin's car.

Police believe Sjodin, 22, may have been abducted Saturday. They are working on the assumption she was still alive.

“We need a lot of prayer and a lot of hope,” Sjodin’s father, Allan Sjodin, told the CBS News' Early Show. “We just want her back. We want everyone to keep searching.”

"There hasn't been a moment in the day I haven't thought of her," said Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker.

Police said searchers turned up a number of discarded items, ranging from clothing to paper towels, in ditches and fields southeast of Grand Forks, near Fisher, Minn., where a call had been traced to Sjodin's cell phone Saturday night. Grand Forks and Fisher are about a dozen miles apart.

Police said “items of interest” were found but did not elaborate. Sgt Mike Hedlund said they did not appear to be significant to the case.

“There are things that we are looking into, but to the best of my knowledge, it was nothing they could pinpoint to being in Dru's possession,” Hedlund said.

Sjodin, a graphic arts major from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was last seen late Saturday afternoon, as she was leaving the Columbia Mall store in Grand Forks where she worked.

Her mother, Linda Walker, said her daughter was talking to her boyfriend in Minneapolis on her cell phone about 5 p.m. Saturday when he heard her say, “Oh, my God,” before the phone went dead.

The boyfriend, whom authorities would not identify, called Sjodin's roommate to ask about her after a second call about three hours later that lasted only about a minute, with no conversation.

The roommate called police after Sjodin, who had a reputation for reliability, did not show up for her 9 p.m. shift as a waitress in a Grand Forks bar.

Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten said he did not know why Sjodin's boyfriend did not call police.

“I'm not going to guess what was going on in his mind at the time,” Eggebraaten said.

Police traced the second call from Sjodin's cell phone to the area near Fisher. Police said the cell phone signal put it within about five miles of the tower near Fisher from about 8 p.m. Saturday until the signal faded out 24 hours later.

Police said Sjodin's red car was found in a Columbia Mall parking lot with a package inside that she apparently had bought at the mall. They found no sign of a struggle.

Sjodin's family is offering a $20,000 reward. David Sutfin, Sjodin's uncle, told the Grand Forks Herald that an unnamed “private benefactor” had added $20,000.

Sjodin is described as about 5-foot-5, weighing 130 pounds, with frosted blond hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing black slacks, black loafers, a pink and purple V-neck blouse, a black blazer-style jacket and a small black handbag.