No Trace of Missing Baby After Hundreds Search For 24 Hours

JOLIET, IL — Hundreds of police, fire department and volunteer searchers combed fields and ponds but found no trace of a missing, barefoot 1-year-old girl.

“We’re just trying to leave no stone unturned,” Deputy Chief Rick Ackerson of the Will County Sheriff’s Department said.

The missing girl, Semaj M.L. Crosby, was last seen playing with six to eight other children in the front yard of her Preston Heights home about 4 p.m. Tuesday. The children, who were as old as 13, were supposed to go get ice cream, but Semaj’s mother, Sheri Gordon, couldn’t get her car started, police said.

The children then went to play in the yard and Baby Semaj has not been seen since.

Bloodhounds and other search dogs failed to find the missing baby. Helicopter personnel utilizing infrared equipment found nothing. Fire department divers searched eight ponds and came up empty. The police, now bolstered by help from the FBI, plan to continue searching late into the night Wednesday.

“Right now we’re considering all possibilities, all avenues of what happened,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg.

The FBI is taking calls through its tip line — 800-CALL-FBI — and the sheriff’s department is accepting calls at 815-727-8575.

A DCFS caseworker was on the scene Wednesday. Sources said the Department of Children and Family Services visited Semaj’s home Tuesday before she disappeared. DCFS spokeswoman Veronica Resa failed to return a call for comment.

Semaj’s father was incarcerated at the time of her disappearance and remains in custody, police said.

The sheriff’s department was sent to Semaj’s house on Easter to investigate a domestic disturbance and abandoned 911 call, police said.

“When they arrived at the home they came across some kids outside playing with sticks,” the department said in a Facebook post. “They went inside and spoke to the mom and grandmother and found that everything was fine, however, a few of the kids were sad because they would not be going to their relative's house for Easter. The deputies realized that the five kids, ranging in ages from 3 to 9, had also not been visited by the Easter Bunny.”

The deputies went to a nearby store to buy candy and toys for the children, the post said.

A neighbor, Gary Reader, said Preston Heights has deteriorated over the years.

“This neighborhood here, nobody watches the kids,” he said.

“The kids are running wild,” Reader said. “There’s no discipline. The kids will come out here to your yard and cuss you out.”

And little is being done to remedy the problem, he said.

“There’s a drug dealer four houses down there,” Reader said. “They sell drugs right out the window. The cops don’t care. The parents don’t care. Nobody cares. Now people maybe will open their eyes.”

Steve Broadway and Suzanna Ibarra were among the more than 100 volunteer searchers.

“I’m doing this because my sister-in-law was murdered 12 years ago at her hair salon in Plainfield,” Ibarra said.

Broadway said he was there for his community.

“I’m concerned about the little girl, first of all,” Broadway said. “Being a concerned citizen, people looking after people.”