FBI agents descended today upon the Indiana mobile home park where a 9-year-old girl went missing from a family friend's home on Friday, adding new urgency to the investigation after local authorities had called off the search after a single day. Some agents with search dogs searched a nearby storage facility for Aliahna Lemmon, but though some confirmed they were FBI agents, they wouldn't say why the agency had gotten involved.
The mobile home park from which Aliahna disappeared is a known haven for registered sex offenders, notes the AP, with some 15 registered with a state website as living there. "It's scary," says one resident. "I don't know how a parent could leave their child alone." Aliahna's mother, Tarah Souders, has told the media that her daughter suffers from vision and hearing problems, attention deficit disorder, emotional problems, and has a history of sleepwalking. (More Aliahna Lemmon stories.)