Many join hunt for missing 2-year-old<P><BR> <P> Police complete search of family's apartment <P> By Alex Roth and Lola Sherman <BR> UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS <P> April 28, 2002 <P> In a scene that has become depressingly familiar in San Diego, dozens of people<BR> came forward yesterday to scour the city for a missing child, this time a 2-year-old<BR> boy. <P> Once again, police staffed a command post. Once again, volunteers scrambled to<BR> print missing-person fliers. And once again, a community was left to wonder who<BR> might be responsible for what police are calling a kidnapping. <P> By midmorning, 60 volunteers had arrived at the Balboa Park playground where<BR> Jahi Turner's stepfather, Tieray Jones, said he last saw the boy Thursday<BR> afternoon. Jones, 23, has told police he left Jahi alone in the park to get a soda and<BR> returned 15 minutes later to discover the boy missing. <P> Yesterday the volunteers fanned<BR> out over a 10-square-mile area. In<BR> the afternoon the list of searchers<BR> grew to include Brenda and<BR> Damon van Dam, whose<BR> 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, was<BR> kidnapped and killed in February. <P> "We don't know them," Brenda van Dam said in reference to Jahi's parents, "but<BR> we know how they feel." <P> "Everybody's got to realize," she added while standing in the playground near 28th<BR> and Cedar streets, "nothing else matters right now except finding this little boy." <P> Police provided no new information yesterday about their investigation. They<BR> didn't say whether they're any closer to locating a witness, a white woman with two<BR> small children whom the stepfather said he saw at the playground near the time of<BR> the disappearance. <P> "We still have not located 2-year-old Jahi Turner," police spokesman Dave Cohen<BR> said in a statement. "As we told you last (Friday) night, robbery-division<BR> detectives have taken over the case and are following up several tips that have<BR> come in. We will not discuss the nature of those tips." <P> Neither Jones nor the boy's mother – Tameka Jones, 18, a Navy sailor – has spoken<BR> to the media. On Thursday, when the boy was reported missing, the mother was at<BR> sea on the amphibious ship Rushmore. A small boat brought her back to San<BR> Diego. <P> The couple reportedly remained at a motel yesterday while police completed a<BR> search of the Golden Hill apartment they moved into just two weeks ago. Police<BR> began their search Friday with the couple's consent and removed several<BR> additional items from their residence yesterday. <P> The search included "the use of certain chemicals," police said in a statement. "A<BR> private company was called in to clear the apartment of chemical residue so that<BR> the family can return. It is expected that the Joneses will return to their home some<BR> time" today. <P> Police have described the Joneses as "extremely cooperative." <P> Jahi's great-grandmother – the grandmother of Jahi's natural father – described the<BR> family as "just devastated" by the child's disappearance. <P> "I just can't understand anything that has happened," said Sy lvia Naylor, 58, who<BR> lives in Frederick, Md., 45 miles north of Washington, D.C. "Why would the<BR> stepdad leave him for 15 minutes in a park? Who does that to a 2-year-old?" <P> She said Jahi lived with his maternal grandparents in Frederick until recently.<BR> Within the past week or so, Jahi's mother decided she wanted the child with her in<BR> California, Naylor said. <P> Tieray Jones' relatives in Maryland couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.<BR> Few details of his life there have emerged. <P> However, according to Leon Widdowson of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, a<BR> Tieray Jones, 23, is wanted in Frederick County on two separate warrants for<BR> missing court appearances on misdemeanor marijuana possession charges. <P> Jahi's mother and stepfather live in a Navy housing complex on Beech Street, about<BR> one mile from the playground. Yesterday people began placing candles, flowers<BR> and stuffed animals near the stairs leading up to their second-floor apartment. <P> A neighbor said Jahi's mother had been excited about having her child move to San<BR> Diego. <P> "She said that she was really anxious to have him come to live with her but that his<BR> grandmother was reluctant to let him go," said the neighbor, Matt Higgins, a sailor<BR> who lives next door to the couple. <P> The volunteer search effort was being organized yesterday by a San Diego private<BR> investigator who also was involved in the search for Danielle. <P> Police said yesterday that volunteers interested in helping the search for Jahi<BR> should call a community phone number at (619) 570-1070. <P> Authorities said the private investigator, Bill Garcia, would be enlisting volunteers<BR> again today at Grenada and Cedar streets, a block from where police have set up a<BR> command post. <P> "The Police Department's command post will remain active at least through Sunday<BR> to coordinate with Mr. Garcia's efforts and to provide detectives with a field<BR> office," Cohen's statement said. <P> Garcia has requested that anyone wishing to volunteer bring photo identification. <P> At least 120 people called the community phone number yesterday for information<BR> about how to volunteer, police said. Many of those who helped in yesterday's<BR> search said they did so out of a sense heartbreak, alarm and civic responsibility. <P> "I'm tired of seeing the number of missing, abused and neglected children," said<BR> Diana Heckman of El Cajon. "The whole community has got to get tired of it, too." <P> Members of San Diego Moose Lodge 508 on 30th Street, three blocks from the<BR> playground, are providing food, phones and faxes to those involved in the search. <P> "We're going to keep the lodge open 24 hours a day until they don't need us any<BR> longer," said Joseph Cook, the lodge's treasurer. "We're going to provide them<BR> anything they need." <P> Linda DeVincenzi, a member of the lodge, said Jahi's disappearance hits extremely<BR> close to home. <P> "This is our neighborhood," she said. "Our children from the Moose Lodge just<BR> had an Easter Egg hunt in that park."