Weekend searches scheduled for Morgan Harrington

5:21 p.m. Thursday

The staging area for volunteers Friday, Saturday, and Sunday has been changed from the Cavalier Inn to the Virginia Department of Forestry office at 900 Natural Resources Drive in Charlottesville.

Click here for a map to the new location

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5:42 p.m.

Dan and Gil Harrington came to Charlottesville Wednesday with a message of hope for their daughter, Morgan.

“Be strong.  We are trying to find you.  We will never stop,“ Gil Harrington said.

The Harrington’s held a news conference not far from a memorial that marks the place Morgan Harrington was last seen.

They say their support these past couple of weeks has come from a stranger, Ed Smart, whose daughter, Elizabeth, went missing back in 2002 and was found several months later.  Smart joined the Harrington’s at the news conference.

“Any family out there that has a missing child goes through the unspeakable [and] becomes a member of the club nobody wants to belong to,“ Smart said.

Smart has also helped the Harrington’s pull together community ground search scheduled to start Friday in Charlottesville.  The Harrington’s say it will start at the place where Morgan was last seen and spread out from there.

There will be a meeting for volunteers Thursday night at 7pm at the Cavalier Inn.

Before the Harrington’s left the news conference Wednesday, they made one thing clear: they’re not giving up.

“To the person who has taken Morgan from us, please just let her go,” Gil Harrington said.  “She has so much more to live and so much more to give.  Please let her come back to her family.  We need her.“

4:15 p.m.

By WSLS News Staff

A news release from the PR firm hired by Dan and Gil Harrington, reveals more information about when and where volunteers for this weekend’s searches are being asked to go.

The release states that all volunteers must be at least 18 years old, must provide photo identification, and are encouraged to dress in comfortable clothing.

Volunteers are being encouraged but not required to attend a community meeting Thursday night, at 7:00 p.m. at the Cavalier Inn’s Jefferson Room. The group sent by the Laura Recovery Center is expected to go over information about the search process and procedure.

The search will start at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, at the Cavalier Inn. Searches on Saturday and Sunday will also start at 9:00 a.m., according to the release.

“We are truly moved by the ongoing support we have received from friends, community members, the media, Virginia Tech, and many others,” Dr. Dan Harrington said in teh reelase. “This search effort is yet another example of the outpouring of kindness toward Morgan and our entire family that continues to give us all hope,“ he added.

“Law enforcement is doing everything in its power to investigate Morgan’s disappearance. We will stop at nothing until she is found, and we are eternally grateful for any additional support communities can offer to help bring our daughter home,” Dan Harrington stated.

The family also wants to remind people in the community about the Find Morgan fund they’ve set up to help with search costs. You can find information about how to contribute on the Find Morgan website.

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1:20 p.m.

By WSLS News Staff

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Dan and Gil Harrington formally announced three days of searches to be held in Charlottesville this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the search for their missing daughter Morgan.

The couple said the details about those searches will be announced on the Find Morgan website. The Harrington’s said a private group that helped in the search for Elizabeth Smart several years ago, as well as other missing people, will organize the searches.

Dan Harrington said the group that is organizing the search is the Laura Recovery Center, and their team will arrive in Charlottesville Wednesday night to set up their base of operations for the searches this coming weekend.

The Laura Recovery Center is based in Texas, and helps find missing children.

Dan said not living in Charlottesville, it was difficult to know how to rall a community, and the group that is coming is very experienced in doing that. Dan added that the group is coordinating the search with authorities. Dan also believes that the more they can have people “look at this, the more likely we can get Morgan back.“

Dan said some people from the Roanoke area have already offered to go to Charlottesville to be part of the team, and that the point of today’s news conference was to let people in the Roanoke and Charlottesville areas know about the upcoming weekend searches.

The Laura Recovery Center team is expected to hold a meeting with volunteers Thursday night at the Cavalier Inn in Charlottesville.

Morgan’s mother, Gil Harrington, made another heartfelt plea. She said she wanted to speak directly to her daughter, and told her to “be strong, we are trying to find you, and will never stop.“ Then Gil asked the person who has taken Morgan from her and her husband, to please let her go because Morgan has so much more to live for and to give.

Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, joined the Harrington’s at Wednesday’s news conference. Dan Harrington said he reached out to Ed last week, to find out how he and the Smart family got through Elizabeth’s disappearance. Ed shared with the Harrington’s how he felt the morning after Elizabeth disappeared, when the community support brought his family “tremendous hope.“ Ed Smart also said Dan and Gil Harrington are doing their best to keep the awareness of Morgan’s disappearance out there, during this “tremendous traumatic event” in their lives.

Ed Smart also said he believes somebody out there knows something about Morgan Harrington’s disappearance. He asked anyone with knowledge of anything that happened with Morgan the night of her disappearance, no matter how insignificant they may think it is, to please come forward and talk to police.

Ed also talked about the group that will coordinate the searches this coming weekend, saying the group generally starts the search from the last place the missing person was seen at, then spreads out using that last sighting as a center point. Smart said missing people are generally found within a five-mile radius of the last place they were seen.

Smart added that the group briefs volunteers on how to perform the search, and gives vests to volunteers to identify them as a searcher.

Ed then described the searches for his daughter Elizabeth involved around 10,000 people, and that many of those volunteers came back day after day, giving the family “tremendous hope.“

State Police did not have any updates in their investigation.

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10:24 a.m.

The parents of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington plan to hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Charlottesville with Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart.

According to a news release from Dan and Gil Harrington’s PR firm, the news conference will address upcoming developments in the search for their daughter.

A news release from Virginia State Police says the couple will also talk about a new search effort planned for this coming weekend.

Morgan Harrington went missing more than two weeks ago at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville.

It is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.