Search For Fla. Girl Continues

Searchers began their fifth day of combing the roads and woods surrounding a missing 9-year-old girl's home Monday, hitting new areas while going back over spots that were already inspected.

The search for Jessica Marie Lunsford, who disappeared from her bedroom last week, has been frustrated by rainy weather and the lack of hard evidence. But the weather had cleared Monday, giving officials some hope, although the search could be scaled back Tuesday if no evidence is found by then.

"The last few days have been the worst days of my life," her father, Mark Lunsford, said Monday on CBS News' The Early Show.

By the end of Monday, officials hope to have searched a circle extending five miles out from the house.

"We still have very, very little to go on," Ronda Hemminger Evan, a spokeswoman for the Citrus County sheriff's department, said Monday. "Phone calls are coming in, but we haven't gotten that one call or one clue that will lead us in a good direction."

Those with information on the case can call (352) 726-1121.

Jessie hasn't been seen since her grandmother tucked her into bed Wednesday night; her father discovered she was missing early Thursday. Police and nearly 540 volunteers ventured out Sunday in torrential rain — and even under a tornado watch — to search for the girl.

Monday would likely be the last day of the search, Evan said.

"She's a lot like the people out there," Mark Lunsford told Early Show co-anchor René Syler. "She's a lot like your little girl and I feel the same way about mine as you feel about yours. She's very special, too. She loves so many of the different things. She likes to do a lot of different thing."

Authorities have few clues. Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has said a door at the home was unlocked and one of Jessie's dolls was gone from the house she shared with her father and his parents.

"She's my daughter and it's my life," Bryant told Syler. "She's very important to me and we just need to find her and bring her back home."

Volunteers have searched residential areas, the shoulders of a four-lane highway about a half-mile from the girl's house and the 3,000-acre Withlacoochee State Forest, about four miles away. The coastal region is riddled with pine thickets, marshes, ponds, springs and caves.

Dawsy said the girl's disappearance is not a confirmed abduction, and he hasn't ruled out anything. The father and grandfather have taken computer voice stress analysis tests akin to lie detector tests, but Dawsy said nothing came of the results.

Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton, who is from Homosassa, and his wife, Katia, put up a $25,000 reward for Jessie's return.