Dec 29, 2007 3:00 pm US/Pacific
Volunteers Search For Missing O.C. Student
MALIBU, Calif. (CBS) ―
Nili Jou, the mother of a missing Orange County college student, joined volunteers who searched the Santa Monica Mountain hillsides on Saturday, hoping clues to her daughter's disappearance in June.
"I'm hoping to find something, some answer, something that's related to Donna," said Nili Jou, as she drove along Kanan-Dume Road looking over hillside cliffs north of Malibu.
"It's been six months and I have no idea what happened to my precious baby," she said.
Her daughter, Donna Jou, a student at San Diego State University, went missing June 23. Jou was 19 years old when she hopped on the back of a motorcycle driven by John Steven Burgess, 35, a convicted sex criminal she met on Craigslist.com.
That was the last time her family saw her. Jou, however, sent brief text messages from her phone that indicated she was locked in a bathroom and in danger at Burgess' house in West Los Angeles, her family said.
Police considers Burgess a person of interest. He has not been charged in the disappearance of Jou. On October 10, he pleaded no contest to two counts of failing to register as a sex offender, and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Burgess has not given any hints about Jou's whereabouts.
As many as 100 volunteers joined Jou in the search for her daughter. The Santa Monica Mountains is an area the family's attorney, Gloria Allred, says they believe could yield important clues.
"We have information that leads us to believe this is the area that should be searched," Allred said as she helped staff the groups command center at Malibu Bluffs Park.
Volunteer Bryan Meckelborg of Long Beach said he was moved to join the effort after thinking about how often his own daughter uses the Internet.
"I heard about it on the news," he said. "I'm a parent with a little girl and if I can help a another family I thought, 'Why not?'"
Meckelborg, who owns a company that rents communication equipment, donated the use of several walkie-talkies to the searchers.
The search is being coordinated by Trinity Search & Recovery, a volunteer group headquartered in the Bay Area city of Pleasanton. The group is searching 24 separate areas covering every roadway between the Ventura (101) Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway.
The area is mountainous and traversed by deep canyons, some of which burned during brushfires in October and November. Kanan-Dume Road, 13 miles long, has several roadside pullouts above high cliffs.
"We do know (Burgess) came to this area and Donna was last seen at a house that's not very far of a drive (away)," said Mike Melson, founder and president of the self-described Christian search and recovery group.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
