Plea From Friend of Missing Ga. Woman

Authorities in Georgia have ended their ground search for Kristi Cornwell, who was apparently abducted ten days ago while walking on a road in rural Blairsville, talking on her cell phone to her boyfriend.

But investigators are still taking tips.

Police say Cornwell, 38, the mother of a 15-year-old son, told the boyfriend, Douglas Davis, that a strange car was following her. He says he heard a struggle, then the words, "Don't take me."

Searchers found Cornwell's cell phone three miles from where they believe she was abducted.

Police say they've followed up on over 1,000 leads, but have no suspects. They add Davis has been ruled out.

On "The Early Show" Friday, Davis told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Cornwell "was screaming. And you knew immediately what was happening. I was helpless. I had made a commitment to her just a few days earlier that I would protect her with my life, and yet right then, there was nothing. I was two-and-a-half hours away, (and it) might (as well) have been a million miles away. And I couldn't go, yet, you know, you want to. You want to do something. I was just frantic, trying to find the solution, and yet there was none."

Davis says he keeps reliving that phone call. "It is the most horrific thing you could ever have (happen)," he remarked. "It won't go away. I don't want it too, but yet, it's so painful to know that the one you love, someone that you've grown to be so fond of, in so short a period of time (roughly six weeks) ... but it seemed like a lifetime. Every day was full of joy and full of our relationship. And just that brief moment that it's just snatched away from you, it sends a message so loud that we have just the day, just the moment. And we need to live it fully, as Kristi did."

Holding back tears, Cornwell's best friend, Melissa Camp, described Cornwell to Rodriguez as "the person you want to call first when anything good or bad happens in your life. We just had a closeness that I prayed for, moving to Blairsville. I was just so thankful to have her as a friend."

Now that they've called off the search, is there a part of you that's preparing for the worst?

"No. No," a crying Camp insisted. "You never give up hope."

Davis said Cornwell would be "worried more about Melissa and about me than she would herself. That's who Kristi is."

Camp said if she could speak to the people who took Cornwell, she'd be "begging, pleading, whatever it takes. If it's money, we'll get it. We just desperately need her back. Her son, her family. She has so many people who love her. If you've loved anybody in your life, please have mercy on her. Kristi, we love you. You know that. We know God is taking care of you. We just plead with everything that we are and have that we can have her back."