MCGRADY, N.C. (AP) -- Rescue crews have found no trace of a missing 12-year-old boy who disappeared while camping with his Boy Scout troop in the North Carolina mountains.
Michael Auberry vanished in the heavily wooded and rugged terrain surrounding the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday after lunch with the other Scouts.
Authorities issued a missing persons alert as a precaution in case Michael showed up on a trail or nearby road, though hikers are infrequent in mid-March.
Officials say searchers found his mess kit within a mile of the camp site, but no new clues have surfaced.
Sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s met search crews as they traversed 5-square-miles of rugged terrain, where temperatures dropped overnight into the 20s.
About 70 people aided by search dogs and a helicopter began a third day of searching the area's logging roads and trails and scouring rugged off-road regions.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
