<P><a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20020613-9999_2m13jahi.html";>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20020613-9999_2m13jahi.html<;/a><P>Man looking for Jahi will visit boy's hometown <BR> <BR> <BR> <P>Retiree plans to spread word with bus trip <P>By Joe Hughes <BR>UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER <P>June 13, 2002 <P>With the region riveted by the televised trial of a man charged with kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle Van Dam, Malcolm Lambert doesn't want anybody to forget Jahi Turner. <P>So Lambert, a 70-year-old retired social researcher, today begins a cross-country bus trip to help spread the word about the San Diego toddler who was reported missing from a Balboa Park playground on April 25. <P>The 2-year-old boy has not been found. <P>"We still need to find that boy, and we need to keep the search alive," said Lambert, a resident of Fletcher Hills in El Cajon. <P>Lambert, who helped look for both Danielle and Jahi, says he is bothered that organized searches for Jahi ended abruptly about two weeks ago. <P>"I feel Jahi may still be alive somewhere and someone may know something," said Lambert, who is divorced and has two grown sons, one of them a police officer in Los Angeles. <P>Using his own money, Lambert bought a $260 ticket for a Greyhound bus trip that will take him to Frederick, Md., where Jahi's extended family lives and where the toddler lived until a week before his disappearance. At stops along the route, Lambert said, he will distribute fliers and buttons that were donated by two El Cajon businesses, Postal Annex and Fletcher Hills Printing. <P>He knows the trip could be construed as a publicity stunt. Publicity, yes. Stunt, no. <P>"I want the publicity, to let people know about Jahi and all the other missing children we seem to have in this country," said Lambert. "Jahi could be anywhere." <P>Among the stops Lambert will make is the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, which helps organize nationwide searches for children and has assisted in both the Danielle Van Dam and Jahi Turner cases. <P>"I hope to get some advice from them on how to restart this search effort," said Lambert, who said he has conducted social work pertaining to youth for the federal government and universities nationwide, including UCSD. <P>When he gets to Maryland, Lambert said, he wants to work with Jahi's family to re-energize the search effort. <P>"There was some infighting and confusion among some people looking for Jahi," said Lambert. "It all stopped suddenly for some reason. I don't know why. We should still be looking." <P>Jahi was reported missing by his stepfather, who said the boy went missing after he left him alone in a Balboa Park playground for about 15 minutes while the stepfather went to buy a soda from a nearby vending machine. Police sources say the story is bogus, but investigators are still treating the case as an abduction. <P>Police search and rescuers last conducted an organized effort May 25 in Balboa Park. <P>Police earlier spent a week searching the Miramar landfill looking for evidence. The case remains active, but there have been no new developments, officials said. <P>Lambert's last involvement in the volunteer effort came when he went to a going away party for Jahi's maternal grandmother May 27. She has since returned to Maryland. <P>Lambert was one of the first to volunteer to look for Jahi. <P>"I am retired; I have the time," Lambert said. "You could call it my repayment to society." <P><P>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>Joe Hughes: (619) 542-4591; joe.hughes@uniontrib.com <BR>