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mama.......don't know if we can link yet......so am pasting the story.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/7780451.htm
Posted on Fri, Jan. 23, 2004
Dru Sjodin disappearance - a mother and father look
Allan Sjodin and Linda Walker continue search
By STEPHEN J. LEE
Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald
More photos Herald photo by John Stennes
A group of family and friends look for UND student Dru Sjoden, missing since November search the banks of a ditch in Polk County on Thursday morning.
Linda Walker and Allan Sjodin drove together around Polk County on Thursday with the unenviable task of looking for places where their daughter may have been left by the man charged with making her disappear.
Joined by about 20 other searchers - relatives and friends - Dru Sjodin's parents braved bone-chilling temperatures made colder by a brisk morning wind.
It was the first time for Dru Sjodin's mother to get out and search the stretching Red River Valley land around Crookston, the hometown of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.
He remains in the Grand Forks
jail, charged with kidnapping Sjodin Nov. 22 from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot. Imprisoned for more than half his life for three sex crimes involving kidnapping and sexually assaulting women, Rodriguez, 50, has denied any involvement in Sjodin's disappearance. That means he hasn't told investigators much about Sjodin's whereabouts.
Hope remains
Prosecutors say they have evidence of Sjodin's blood in Rodriguez's car. On the two-month anniversary of her vanishing, searching for her would seem as bleak as the winter day.
But Walker and Sjodin remain steadfast in hoping against hope and graciously handle the interminable news media pressure.
They said that while they early on attempted to contact Rodriguez to seek help, now they are focused on searching for their daughter. Cousins, siblings and friends are around them, helping search.
Sjodin and Walker are divorced but have kept a united front in the search.
He has been in Grand Forks nearly every week since Nov. 22, when Sjodin disappeared, driving the countryside in Polk and Grand Forks counties, looking.
She has been to Grand Forks more than once in that time, but never out on a search like this, Walker said.
She and a close friend, Liz Nelson of Duluth, spent the day driving back and forth between Beltrami and Maple Lake, sometimes with two teams of bloodhound handlers. Allan Sjodin was with them for part of the time.
She keeps her hopes and spirits high, buoyed by "Dru's spirit, who she is and who she is about," Walker said. "I'm not naive. But as a mother, as a parent, I think anybody would understand that you can strive to fight for your child and find the means. That's what gets us through."
The day started with temperatures at 15 below zero as the search party mustered in Crookston. The news media, including Twin Cities reporters and photographers attracted again by the first large search effort since last month, joined a long caravan of vehicles.
A rectangular area roughly six miles wide, stretching from six miles west of Beltrami, Minn., to six miles east of the small town of 101 people was covered, said Bob Heales. It was an area just southeast of what had been closely covered by law enforcement-led searches in November and December, Heales said.
"We covered about 70 square miles, more than we expected," said the Denver private investigator and Sjodin family friend. "We will start east of there tomorrow."
Walker and Sjodin went with the two bloodhound teams to check an area near Maple Lake, at the lake's outlet on the north side where the water was still unfrozen.
According to law enforcement investigators, Rodriguez was known to fish on the lake and was familiar with the area, which also is along the route he traveled to work, said Heales.
Cold doesn't help
But while cold temperatures normally don't hinder blood hounds' acute smelling abilities, Thursday was a little too much for the dogs, said Denny Adams, the Conde, S.D., owner of Dakota Territory Search Dog. His , Calamity Jane, is 10 and a real veteran.
"She searched for the Olympic bomber, that Rudolph guy, in the North Carolina mountains," Adams said. "I've taken her over to East Africa for a search."
A couple of 15-minute sessions of snuffling through snow didn't work well for her, though.
"If it was just 15 degrees warmer, it would make a big difference," said Adams at noon, giving her the rest of the day off. Nolan Baldwin, of Edgeley, N.D., works with Adams, using his own bloodhound, Jethro, who is 5.
The human searchers stayed close to their vehicles, too, walking in ditches and through grassy areas.
"As Minnesotans, it's cold, but not as cold as we know it can be," Walker said. "We are thankful the winds have ceased and died off. When you are out there walking, you can stay somewhat warm. Certainly, the weather is something that you don't pay attention to when you are on a mission."
Boyfriend searches
Chris Lang, Dru's boyfriend, who last heard her voice on her cell phone Nov. 22 at the moment investigators think she was abducted, explained why he was back to trudge through hard-packed snow drifts and over frozen ditch water along fields barren of all but a frozen white.
"She's the woman I love," he explained. "She's still out there."
More searchers, perhaps 50 or more, are expected to join the group today and Saturday, Heales said.
Areas on both sides of U.S. Highway 2 east of Mentor, Minn., will be covered, he said.
Walker, who is staying in Grand Forks, will keep on.
The Dru Sjodin story has captured interest of people worldwide and she hears from many of them, Walker said.
Stopping for a coffee break in the Beltrami Mall Cafe, Sjodin and Walker were recognized instantly by Sue Anderson, who served them.
"Your money's no good here," she said. "Our hearts are with you."
That kind of response helps, Walker said.
"It feels wonderful to be close to all these people who have been so tremendously supportive of my family," she said. "So that feels good, helping us keep Dru's voice alive."
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Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237, or (800) 477-6572, extension 237; e-mail
slee@gfherald.com
