“If The Family Gives Up, Everybody Gives Up”

Searchers were conducting a large-scale search Sunday for a missing north county teenager.  14-year old Amber Dubois was last seen walking to Escondido High School three weeks ago.

About 350-volunteers are taking part in the weekend search.  Search and rescue headquarters have been setup in an Escondido warehouse at 755 N. Quince St., near Mission Avenue.  A concerned citizen donated the building.

“We had a 7,500 square foot building donated to us. We’re doing all of our work out of here,” Amber's father, Maurine Dubois said.  “We have a separate mapping room where things are coordinated.  It’s much easier than trying to work out of a small trailer in a parking lot.” 

Amber's father thanked the community Saturday.  He called their efforts “amazing” and said he will not give up.

 “I will have continuous, 100-percent hope until you completely prove it to me, there's a reason not to,” Maurice Dubois said.  “I will never give up hope. Amber, if you're out there, you can guarantee I will never stop until we have found you and you're back home with us.”

Amber's father asked volunteers to tie 'blue ribbons' around trees and poles in Escondido to call attention to his missing daughter.  He said blue is Amber's favorite color.

Among those involved in the search is Marc Klaas.  His daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered in 1993. 

Twelve-year-old Polly Klaas was having a slumber party when a strange man holding a knife entered her bedroom, tied up all the girls and put pillow cases over their heads. The intruder then took a sobbing Polly off into the night.

Klaas said he recently ‘had a dream' about Polly for the first time in years and said it was because of Amber Dubois.

“It's their gift to me quite frankly, because that just doesn't happen on a regular basis and it's absolutely the only way that I can continue to visit her,” Klaas said. 

Marc Klaas has been in Escondido since Monday helping to organize the volunteer search efforts for Amber Dubois.  He has established the Klaas Kids Foundation to help families with missing children.

“The family has to keep the hope alive. They have to be the ones that are going to inspire others to go out and look for their child.  If the family gives up, everybody gives up,” Klass said.

Although friends and family have said that Amber was a model student who would never run away, police have been unable to call the search anything other than a case of a missing juvenile. They have been unable to produce any evidence that would prove she was abducted.

The family is offering a $50,000 dollar reward for any information about her whereabouts, and $10,000 for information leading to the arrest for those responsible for her disappearance.

Anyone with information regarding Amber Dubois’ disappearance is urged to call Escondido police at (760) 743-8477.

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