BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLERAIN TOWNSHIP -- Prompted by a store worker's reported sighting suggesting Mary Jennifer Love might have disappeared from a storefront instead of her nearby Colerain Township home, search dogs tracked the lot without luck, police and a search official confirmed Sunday.
As bloodhounds, armed with a guide-scent from striped jean shorts of the missing 6-year-old girl, continued their canvass of the area under a broiling afternoon sun, Tri-State Search and Rescue spokesman Bill Garrison said the search of the AmeriStop lot on Springdale Road was inherently difficult because of the volume of customers -- and scents.
"Anytime you have extensive foot traffic," Hamilton County Sheriff's Office spokesman Col. Dan Wolfangel added, "it creates confusion for the dogs."
Mary was reported missing after she did not return to her Springwood Village apartment for dinner Wednesday night. The AmeriStop sighting was about that time, Col. Wolfangel said.
He said police continued Sunday to examine the store's security camera film for clues.
There have been between 70 and 80 calls to police so far.
Mary is described as an African-American girl, about 3-foot-6, weighing 48 pounds. She has braided hair.
At the Pizza Hut next door, several workers said an employee there also thought she saw Mary in front of the stores in her pink bathing suit, but the employee was unavailable for comment.
Meanwhile, police took more items from the home and surrounding woods. A second crew of search dogs was brought in from the private Canine Backwoods Search and Rescue, based in Preble County. At the request of local officials, the agency brought four dog handlers and two bloodhounds.
"The more people you have out looking, (the more) the dogs will pick up scents and sounds we never will," said Backwoods coordinator Debbie Knox. "But what we do mainly is trust the dogs."
The dogs picked up a trail leading to the nearby stores, but they quickly abandoned it.
The high temperatures Sunday, Mr. Garrison said, meant the dogs could not search long or pick up faint scents well.
Another dog team is to arrive from Michigan today.
