Volunteers sought for missing girl search

Danielle's parents say this photo was taken the day before she disappeared.

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- As police continue to search for 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, her parents appealed to the San Diego community Friday to help look for their daughter, a spokeswoman for the family told reporters.

Dawn Davis, of a Texas-based child recovery center, relayed the parents' message, asking area residents to join a civilian ground search Friday for the girl.

"We want to focus on Danielle, we want to bring Danielle home," Davis said, noting that volunteers are needed to cover "targeted areas" in looking for the girl.

RESOURCES Daniellemissing.com

Davis arrived in the San Diego area Wednesday after a friend of the van Dams asked her organization, The Laura Recovery Center Foundation, to coordinate a civilian search. She said the civilian effort, which began earlier Friday, is an attempt to make use of all possible resources.

"The family realizes that law enforcement is doing their job and are limited in manpower," Davis said, noting the volunteers are communicating with San Diego police. "When they call for volunteers, the manpower increases by that many."

A spokeswoman for the San Diego Police department said, "They're certainly welcome to do that on their own."

Father: Family 'barely getting by'

The second-grader has been missing since last Saturday, when her mother went to wake her in her second-floor bedroom and found her gone. She was last seen Friday night by her father.

Davis said the civilian search would be centered around the van Dams home, where she was last seen, and may include parts of the Imperial County Desert, about 70 miles east of San Diego. Volunteers have already searched along the roadsides and other targeted areas, Davis said.

Parents Brenda and Damon van Dam have held several news conferences and appeared on numerous television shows in an effort to help recover their daughter. Danielle's father made another plea to reporters Friday to continue circulating information and pictures of his daughter, in hopes of finding her.

When asked how the family was coping, he said, "We're barely getting by."

A search of the Imperial County Desert on Thursday turned up no clues, according to San Diego police spokesman David Cohen. Investigators searched an area of the desert where a neighbor, who has been questioned extensively, took officers Tuesday to show them where he spent the weekend. The man hired a lawyer Thursday.

Police are treating the girl's disappearance as a kidnapping.

After the search, Cohen said, detectives spoke with the man at his home, just two doors down from the van Dams. Cohen would not release details of that meeting.

The van Dams had planned to take a trip to Italy with their daughter this weekend.

Parents pass polygraphs

The parents told CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday there was a "breach" into their home around the time their daughter disappeared.

"There was an open door in the house," Damon van Dam said.

"There was a breach into our house, and that's all we're allowed to say," Brenda van Dam said.

According to previous statements from the police and the parents, Brenda van Dam came home at 2 a.m. Saturday and noticed a blinking light on the burglar alarm and a door unlocked. An outside gate was also found open, the parents said.

The parents have taken and passed polygraph tests -- which they said they were glad to do -- and police have searched their home.

As part of the investigation, police spent several days questioning the family's neighbor, searched his house, impounded his SUV and motor home before searching the desert area where he said he was the weekend Danielle disappeared.

Tuesday, San Diego Police Lt. Jim Collins told reporters: "We're looking at him. He is a suspect, but there are other potential suspects that we're taking a look at, too.

"He's been extremely cooperative with us," Collins said. "We have been focusing on him, but I'm not going to call him a prime suspect or anything else at this point."

The van Dams said the man is merely a neighborhood acquaintance.

"He lives two doors down ... and he seems nice enough," Damon van Dam said. "He smiles and waves as we drive by but beyond that, we don't know much."

Brenda van Dam said she was surprised to discover police were scrutinizing the man. "I feel that we live in a safe neighborhood and you don't expect things like this to happen."

Danielle is described as 4 feet tall, weighing 58 pounds with shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair. She may be wearing light blue pajamas with small flowers.