I recall it somewhat differently , in so far as the public was encouraged to search, and the Missing Persons squad was in charge, from the start, THEN, about 3 weeks in, suddenly, the entire program changed, Commander Patton stated it was a Homicide matter , the public was asked to stand down, the Missing Persons squad was stood down, Homicide took over, and then , blammo, Mr Stephenson was arrested..
I truly believe it was a missing person thingy at the beginning, there was lots of stuff that she might have run away, that her credit cards and whatnot were being checked, stuff like that.....