CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Hundreds of volunteers fanned out from the University of Virginia campus Saturday to search for a sophomore who disappeared a week ago.
Volunteers met at the university’s basketball arena before breaking off into teams throughout Charlottesville to search for 18-year-old Hannah Graham.
“I have two daughters of my own, and I would hope that if one of them was missing everyone would come out as well,” said Marci Stewart, a volunteer searcher.
City police continue to investigate Graham’s disappearance. Police said Friday that they have spoken with a man they believe was with her in a bar on the night she vanished but did not have enough information to arrest or detain him.
In an emotional appeal, Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo asked anyone who might have seen Graham and the man early Sept. 13 on the Downtown Mall to contact authorities. Longo stopped short of calling the unidentified man a suspect but said police are keeping an eye on him.
Police have focused on Graham’s movements the night of Sept. 12 and into the early hours of Sept. 13. The sophomore from northern Virginia met friends at a restaurant for dinner, stopped by two parties at off-campus housing units and left the second party alone, police have said.
Surveillance videos showed her walking, and at some points running, past a pub and service station and then onto the Downtown Mall, a seven-block pedestrian strip.