Missing Student Situation - very scary

<p>from the Des Moines Register:</p>

<p>Law enforcement officials searching for a missing Grinnell College sophomore said Wednesday Paul Shuman-Moore was despondent shortly before he disappeared sometime Monday. </p>

<p>Shuman-Moore, 19, of Chicago, was last seen around 1:20 a.m. Monday on the Grinnell College campus, said Grinnell police chief Jody Matherly. He was reported missing to the police Monday night after no one had seen or heard from him all day.</p>

<p>Matherly said Shuman-Moore’s sad behavior was uncharacteristic. </p>

<p>“He is a good student and a good friend,” he said. “This (change in behavior) is what concerns us the most.”</p>

<p>Matherly said he was unsure of what exactly had sparked a mood change in the 19-year-old, but said there was no suggestion of drug use. He declined to comment on rumors that Shuman-Moore may have written a suicide note.</p>

<p>Matherly said Shuman-Moore’s roommate had told police that Shuman-Moore did not have his wallet with him when he was last seen, leaving a campus coffee house. The sophomore, who also does not have a car on campus, had played with a band at the coffeehouse for several hours before he was last seen walking towards his dormitory.</p>

<p>More than 300 people, including volunteers from the school and in town, and law officials, have participated in the search. A plane was circling above cornfields Wednesday morning; police dogs were used to try and track a scent; and volunteers fanned out to search areas within a five- to six-mile radius of the campus.</p>

<p>Officials said they were using all-terrain vehicles and other vehicles in the search as well. Matherly added that horses are available to cover "areas we won’t be able to reach by foot or ATV</p>

<p>Searches began Tuesday and resumed at 8 a.m. today. Another search shift will start at 1:00 p.m. today.</p>

<p>Joe Reth, 22, a senior at Grinnell College joined a search party in hopes of finding Shuman-Moore. Reth, a baseball player for Grinnell, said he and his teammates did not know Shuman-Moore personally, but they would do all they could to find him. </p>

<p>“My friends and I were talking last night and decided if it were one of us, we would want someone to look for us, too,” Reth said.</p>

<p>Reth, who accompanied two of his teammates, two female athletes, and a campus security officer through a cornfield just south of town, said many sports teams had called off their practices Tuesday to aid in the search </p>

<p>“If we need to keep looking, I’ll try to do all I can,” said Reth, adding he was missing several classes Tuesday to help officials. </p>

<p>Shuman-Moore has no known medical condition that specifically would endanger his health, although Matherly said he would probably be in distress after being exposed to the elements for an extended amount of time.</p>

<p>“The reality is, there are good endings and bad endings with these situations," Matherly said. "But we are still treating this investigation as though Paul is still alive.” </p>

<p>Last month in Des Moines, a mildly autistic teenager who left his home for a walk in a wooded area, was found by volunteer searchers after being missing for nearly two days.</p>

<p>Volunteers found 16-year-old Matt Thompson in a wooded area a few miles from his home. He had fallen from a tree and broken his leg and was dehydrated when gleeful searchers found him. </p>

<p>Shuman-Moore is 5-foot 7-inches, and weighs 138 pounds. He has medium length brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a green t-shirt, a light-colored plaid shirt, pants, and white sneakers.</p>

<p>Kate Worster-Foster, director of communications for Grinnell College, said the school is very concerned for Shuman-Moore’s safety and encourages anyone with information about his whereabouts to immediately contact the Grinnell Police Department at (641) 236-2650 or Grinnell Campus Security at (641) 269-4600
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<p>The situation is very tragic no matter what the reason but we can only hope the outcome is his safe reappearance in a short time. My daughter is a freshman at the school and the school seems to be handling (from our long distance perspective) as well as they can - students are not being overwhelmed with information but are kept informed. I hope the parents of the missing student are feeling supported but my guess is that they are. Grinnell seems to be very proactive in some ways compared to other schools (for example it sends out medical waivers allowing the student to give parents permission to get medical information in case of emergency--some of my friends have learned the hard way that they can't automatically 'get info' about their child's medical condition--because of privacy concerns and the 'children' being over age 18...)
In any case, yes this situation is every parent's worst nightmare but it can happen at any school, in any type of environment.</p>