AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — A Texas-based nonprofit that works to find missing people across the country has called off its search for UFC heavyweight Walt Harris’ missing stepdaughter.
Destinie Duvall of Texas EquuSearch tells WRBL-TV the horse-mounted search group is heading home after using “every resource available” to search for 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard in Auburn, Alabama.
Blanchard was last seen on Oct. 23 at an Auburn gas station. Her damaged car was later found abandoned.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ibraheem Yazeed has been arrested and charged with first-degree kidnapping. Surveillance video puts him at the gas station at the same time as Blanchard. He was free on bond in an earlier kidnapping case at the time.
The search and rescue group looked in areas along Interstate 85, the Tuskegee National Forest and area waterways, The Opelika-Auburn News reported.
“We’ve used every resource available to use over the last nine days to locate Aniah,” Duvall said. “It’s always hard to leave folks without the answer we came here to find.”
Texas EquuSearch is hopeful investigators will be able to provide new leads and they could then rejoin the search effort.
“We have faith in the Auburn Police Division, the public and other agencies involved in finding us a new lead,” Duvall said. “We’re prepared to come back immediately when the call comes.”
