David MacAnally/Eyewitness News
West Lafayette - A faint cellphone signal is offering new direction in the search for a missing Purdue student. Searchers are now looking for the missing freshman in a different part of campus. Wade Steffey's cell phone lost power a week ago, but police think the phone's last signal could have come from an area much larger than first thought.
You can't go anywhere on the Purdue University campus without seeing posters and photos of Wade Steffey, Jr. The 19-year-old honor student went missing early on January 13th after leaving a party at the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. He was last seen at 12:30 a.m. in front of a dorm. He last used his phone in that area.
Police expanded the area Wednesday from where the missing phone last emitted a tracking signal before losing power about five days after Wade disappeared.
Volunteers hit some of those areas Wednesday.
"We just hit driveways, backyards, alleys. If everyone just went outside and looked I'm sure we'd have a better chance of finding something," said one of the volunteer searchers.
Walter Evans is in town for a meeting and volunteered to look and jog around Celery Bog north of campus.
"I have a 15 and 11-year-old at home," he says. "I just can imagine what the parents feel."
"It's one of ours," said volunteer Patti Bishop with the IN HOPE FOR THE MISSING organization.
"The student's consider this as a family."
Bishop, with other volunteers, manned a donated space at Ross-Ade Stadium where searchers meet.
"My step-daughter Karen Jo Smith disappeared," she says.
A suspect was convicted, But Karen Jo was never found.
Among other members of the organization, family members of six Hoosiers missing for up to 20 years including two college students.
"By helping others we find we are also helping ourselves," says Patti Bishop. All now helping the Steffey family.
"As we were searching, I knew what his father was thinking," says Bishop. "He was rushing to find his child."
On Thursday, police plan to search along the Wabash River.
Purdue University
Posters seeking information on Wade Steffey are up all over the Purdue campus.
Volunteers again turned out to help search for the missing student.
Patti Bishop is helping. Her step-daughter disappeared and was never found.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WTHR. For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
