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Friends of Missing Student Search for Her
By DAVE KOLPACK

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - While most University of North Dakota students went home for Thanksgiving, about 30 friends of Dru Sjodin stayed to search for her.

Sjodin, 22, a senior from Pequot Lakes, Minn., has been missing since late Saturday afternoon, when she left her job at the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks. Authorities believe she was abducted while talking to her boyfriend on her cell phone.

``We're going to be up here as long as it takes, until we find something,'' said Hans Tweed, who with Eli Loven and Adam Ruud organized a search party of about 30 friends from Sjodin's hometown. ``We haven't slept barely and haven't done anything but worry about her.''

The search was centered on Fisher, Minn., about 10 miles east of Grand Forks, where a call was traced to her cell phone Saturday night. It has been widened to the Crookston, Minn., area, because the cell phone signal may have carried that far, officials said.

Sjodin's car, a 1994 red two-door Oldsmobile Cutlass, was found in the Columbia Mall parking lot and analyzed by the state crime lab. Police refuse to release a preliminary report of the lab findings.

Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, said she believes someone knows where her daughter is, and pleaded with that person to ``come forward with her and bring her home safely to us.''

Sjodin's roommate, Meg Murphy, said she last saw Sjodin early Saturday and received a call from Chris Lang, Sjodin's boyfriend, about 6 o'clock that evening.

Lang was worried. He had received two calls from Sjodin - the first was cut off and her boyfriend heard her say, ``Oh, my God'' before the phone went dead. The second call, a couple of hours later, was only static and the sound of numbers being pressed.

Murphy said she called police Saturday night after Sjodin failed to show up for her second job at a restaurant.

``Sometimes I feel it's not even happening, that she's just going to walk through the door or call or something,'' Murphy told the Brainerd Daily Dispatch. ``And then when you watch the news, or when the police call again or go through her room, the reality hits.''


11/27/03 03:54