I'm not sure of anyone has posted this :
MINNEAPOLIS - A red backpack matching the description Barway Collins was carrying was found by volunteer searchers Thursday near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
Police have not determined if there's a link to the backpack and Collins.
A pair of red shoes were also found Thursday in North Mississippi Regional Parkbut officers say the shoes are not connected to Collins.
The third item found was a knife. Again, police have not said if it's linked to the case.
Crystal Police released this statement Thursday evening: "All items recovered during the groups search today will be analyzed over the next few days to determine whether they have any evidentiary value."
Ten-year-old Barway Collins, who is from Crystal, disappeared shortly after school March 18.
Police have said the boy's father, 33-year-old Pierre Collins, remains the primary suspect. Pierre Collins has told reporters he had nothing to do with his son's disappearance.
Police are focusing their search for the missing boy along the Mississippi River. Crystal Police Chief Stephanie Revering has said there is "strong evidence" that Pierre Collins was in that area just after Barway went missing.
Penny Castano never met the missing child or his family. But she was moved to organize Thursday's search. Castano has four children and nine grandchildren. Nearly 100 people searched a three-mile radius of the North Mississippi Regional Park. The area was split into five zones. Volunteers found the backpack in an area labeled as zone two on the map volunteers were issued. The red pair of shoes were in zone five near 41st and 42 street.
"When we met on social media and tried to put our own search group together we had no idea it would grow so large so fast," Castano said, "We started out four moms and in a matter of hours turned to hundreds."
We are concerned, a lot of us are mothers, and grandmothers, and don't feel enough is being done to find him," Castano added. "It is frustrating, disheartening, we are losing sleep. It it just really hard out here thinking what could be. What we could find."
Among the volunteer searchers, was a boy who was in the same class as Barway.
"He turned out to be in the same class as me and we liked the same things, so then I said….do you want to be my friend? And he said yes, and we played the rest of the year," said Adam Theisen.
Adam's father, Richard Theisen, grew up swimming and fishing in the Mississippi and says he knows the stretch of water well. So, he jumped in and checked areas of the river filled with brush and vowed to search into the night.
"I've been losing sleep at night hearing about it – if my child was missing I'd be out here every second of the day looking for him," said Theisen.
The Crystal Police Department will continue to welcome the assistance of any citizen groups that may wish to aid in the search.
If anyone has any information about Barway and his disappearance you can call 911 or the Crystal Police Department Tip Line at 763-531-1020.
Renovation systems and All Kind Painting donated 500 bottles of water, snacks and reflective safety vests to the volunteers.
http://www.kare11.com/story/news/lo...pack-found-in-barway-collins-search/70854840/