TWO RIVERS, Wis. — More than a month into the disappearance of three year old Elijah Vue, many volunteers remained determined to find him.
On Thursday, authorities used a coordinated drone search in areas of interest to get a different perspective.
Craig Barnett and a group of volunteers searched the Rahr Memorial School Forest north of Two Rivers.
This was his first time joining in the effort to find Elijah.
“It’s an extremely dense forested area so it needs to have a really good thorough search going through it,” said Barnett.
Barnett said a search wasn’t originally planned for Friday, but after seeing law enforcement ramp up their efforts on Thursday, it lit a fire under a lot of the volunteers.
“They were saying the police had 70 drones units here searching the area which made people want to come out again,” said Barnett.
It was also Kay Chadwick’s first time searching for Elijah.
She said she saw the family’s plea for more volunteers and had to get involved.
“It really touched my heart and I’m retired and why not. There’s no reason why not to be out here," said Chadwick. "We need closure for the all the communities around here and the Vue family.”
Barnett believes that while spring will bring more pleasant weather for future searches, it will also make it more difficult in other ways.
“It’s good right now but in my opinion because you are going to have new growth start," said Barnett. "Trees are going to fill out and it’s going to start making things to search both air and even the ground.”
However for Barnett, there is strength in numbers.
“The more people we have, the more opportunities we are going to have bring him home,” said Barnett.
Volunteers believe search efforts have covered a lot of ground in the last month.
They said they are thankful that the community and law enforcement are as motivated as ever to bring Elijah home.