<a href="http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020502/11111.html";>http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020502/11111.html<;/a><P>Search at SD landfill continues<BR>KENNETH MA <BR>Staff Writer <BR>MIRAMAR ---- Nearly 80 San Diego police detectives continued to painstakingly comb through heaps of garbage at a city landfill Wednesday in search for clues to the disappearance of a San Diego toddler. <P>"We don't have (many) clues or information in this case," said Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, during a late afternoon press conference. "Nothing has been found so far." <P>Don Boomer/Staff Photographer <BR> <BR>San Diego police and Miramar Landfill workers search through trash looking for clues in the disappearance of 2-year-old Jahi Turner. <BR>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR> <P>Two-year-old Jahi Turner, who lives in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego, was last seen by his stepfather, Tieray Jones, 23, at a Balboa Park playground. Police believe the toddler was kidnapped. <P>Jones told police that he had left Jahi alone for 15 minutes to purchase a soda from a vending machine several hundred yards away. An unknown woman with two other youngsters also was at the playground. When Jones returned, his stepson and everyone else was gone. <P>Cohen said there are no suspects in the case, but he said police are seeking the woman for questioning. Investigators had questioned another woman earlier, but it was later determined that she was not the person Jones had seen. <P>"We just want to tell ... the person who has our son that you can just drop him off at a safe place so that someone who is caring can bring him home to us," the boy's mother, 18-year-old Tameka Jones, said in a Tuesday press conference. "We don't care who the (abductor) is just ---- we just want him back." <P>Meanwhile, detectives have been sifting through mounds of rubbish continuously at the Miramar Landfill since Tuesday morning. Cohen said that detectives could spend days scouring the trash since only 20 percent of the garbage set aside for inspection has been searched. <P>Cohen declined to say what promoted police to comb the landfill, adding that it was not the result of a tip. One hundred Marines are expected to join the search today. <P>Meanwhile, hundreds of volunteer searchers have been scouring canyons and residential neighborhoods near the playground since Saturday. <P><BR>A recent arrival <P>Jahi had moved to San Diego from Frederick, Md., five days before his disappearance to live with his mother and his stepfather. <P>The family lives in a housing complex on Beech Street, which rents to naval and Marine families. <P>Tameka Jones, a Navy sailor, was on duty abroad the USS Rushmore off the coast of San Diego the day Jahi vanished. <P>During the press conference, the couple pleaded for the public's help to find their son. The two have been assisted by Brenda and Damon van Dam. The van Dams' 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, was kidnapped and killed in February. <P>Danielle's alleged abductor, David Westerfield, 50, is awaiting trial for her murder. <P><BR>Looking through rubbish <P>Working inside a trash pit at the 140-acre landfill, detectives, clad in protective suits, raked through tons of garbage. Home Depot has donated 100 rakes and 100 pairs of gloves for the effort. <P>Investigators wore surgical masks to abate the reeking air as tractors and other large earth-movers continuously unearthed trash buried in mounds of dirt and rocks. <P>Nicole Hall, a spokeswoman for the city's Environmental Services Department, which operates the landfill, said the trash pits or cells are filled with 5,000 tons of trash from neighborhoods throughout San Diego daily. <P>"It's very unusual to do this," she said of the search. "It's really finding a needle in a haystack." <P>A body was found at a city landfill more than 20 years ago, according an official with the Environmental Services Department, who did not wish to be identified. <P>Although it was not a homicide case, searchers took nine days to find the body of the independent trash hauler at the Chollas Landfill, the official said. <P><BR>Volunteers organize searches <P>More than 100 volunteers are searching for Jahi. They have created the Jahi Search Center at a Moose lodge at 1648 30th St. <P>Fliers have been posted in the neighborhood, and a Web site for Jahi has been created. <P>"It's a community coming together and saying we have had enough," said Bill Garcia, a private investigator who is coordinating the search efforts. <P>The effort comes two months after Danielle van Dam's nude body was found by volunteer searchers in Dehesa. <P>In an all too familiar sight, Jahi search teams have donned fluorescent vests and traversed target areas seeking clues. The dawn-to-dusk searches are a daily operation. <P>Garcia said he believes Jahi is still alive because, unlike the Danielle case, there are little clues and no suspects. <P>"He is probably being held up by someone," Garcia said. <P>This weekend, he said, up to 500 volunteers are expected to give up their free time to find Jahi. <P>The toddler is described as being a light-skinned African-American who is about 30 inches tall and weighs about 30 pounds. He was last seen wearing a blue "Winnie the Pooh" shirt, blue nylon cargo pants and a pair of gray Michael Jordan tennis shoes. <P>To volunteer, call the search center at (619) 255-6411. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at (619) 531-2000 or Crime Stoppers at (619) 235-8477. <P><BR>City News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Kenneth Ma at (760) 740-3524 or kma@nctimes.com. <P>5/2/02 <P>