Police officers, a sheriff's dive team and FBI agents searched Kit Carson Park today in response to a 10-month-old tip possibly related to the disappearance of a teenage North County girl more than a year ago.
About 30 personnel from the various agencies began looking through the open-space and recreation area off Bear Valley Parkway in Escondido this morning to follow up on the report, which was received on Thursday night, police Lt. Craig Carter said.
Authorities were treating the tip as potentially related to the highly publicized Amber Dubois missing-person case. The 14-year-old Escondido High School freshman disappeared while walking to campus in February 2009. There have been no known sightings of her since.
Last May, a 9-year-old and two 11-year-olds told their families about coming across a bag containing what appeared to be human hair in the southern reaches of the park, Carter said.
The children's parents apparently did not consider the purported discovery significant enough to report, but changed their minds this week when the subject came up again, according to Carter.
Authorities found a bag in the general area described by the youngsters, though it was not immediately clear if it was the one in question, and it had yet to be opened by midday, the lieutenant said.
On Tuesday, searchers found the body of Poway High School senior Chelsea King, who had been missing for five days after failing to return from an afternoon jog in Rancho Bernardo.
A registered sex offender has been arrested and charged with the rape and murder of the 17-year-old straight-A student.
Escondido police officials have said they are looking into the possibility of links between Chelsea's accused killer and the disappearance of Amber. No such connections have been made public so far.
