Miller arrived in Fairfield Tuesday, immediately met with law enforcement and began mapping out the area. With virtually no clues as to what happened to the 22-year-old college student, Miller said the search “is a process of elimination.”
“We don’t have anything to go on,” he said. “There’s no eye witnesses, nothing on her phone that would lead us to a certain cell tower. She just vanished. We only got one fact and that’s that she’s missing.”
An estimate on the number of volunteers who could show up hasn’t been determined, but thousands have shown up for past searches organized by the search and recovery nonprofit organization. When Texas EquuSearch became involved in the search for Caylee Anthony in Florida, 4,200 volunteers showed up, he said.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, there’s an estimated 100,000 active missing persons cases in the U.S. at any given time. With so many possible missing persons cases to get involved in, Miller said volunteering his organization came down to a couple points.
“When a family member calls you and asks for your help, how do you say no?” he said.Miller was scheduled to be in West Virginia this week to help with a missing persons investigation that’s in its fourth month, but he said because of how new Markham’s case is, he felt he would be if better use here.
“We like to get on case — the earlier the better,” Miller said. “There’s a better chance of finding them alive ... If something did happen out there, let’s pray we can get her located. The sooner we locate her, the better they can determine the cause of death and find evidence.”
Fairfield police Chief Mike Dickey said police will be coordinating with Texas EquuSearch, but said they’ll be operating independently. Beyond city limits, searches will be up to volunteers, he said.
“We’re going to support them in every way we can,” he said.
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Markham. Call Fairfield police at (513) 829-8201 or CrimeStoppers at (513) 352-3040.
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5237 or kcano@coxohio.com.
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