Personnel from 13 different jurisdictions joined dozens of family members and friends Monday in the ongoing search for a 6-month-old girl who was reported missing from her father’s home in the community of Happy Valley near Redding in Shasta County on July 2.
Matthew Ryan Graham, called 911 around 5:26 a.m. on July 2 claiming his daughter Ember was missing, according to a news release from the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office.
Graham told authorities he last saw Ember around 10:30 p.m. the night before, and when he woke up around 5 a.m. the next morning she wasn’t in her crib, according to sheriff’s officials.
“I’ve spent the last four days looking through dirt for my granddaughter,” Deborah Tomlin told the Los Angeles Times. “If somebody has her at this point, we don’t care who did it; we don’t care how they did it. We just want her home.”
The 24-year-old father was described as being uncooperative and was considered a person of interest in his daughter’s disappearance, the news release stated.
“Nothing makes sense,” Tomlin told the newspaper. “Everything has been conflicting. His stories haven’t added up to anything.”
Graham was being held on an unrelated probation violation at the Shasta County Jail. He has not been arrested in the child’s disappearance.
Ember’s parents were separated. She was staying with her father the night she disappeared, sheriff’s Lt. Dave Kent told the Times.
The child’s mother, Jamie Lee Graham, told Redding TV station KRCR that there was no way her husband was involved.
“He loves that little girl more than I’ve ever seen anybody love somebody,” she told the station. “He is the most doting dad … he’s so patient with her. There’s no way he did this. There’s no way.”
Ember Graham suffers from a seizure disorder and must be given medication for her condition, the release stated.
A $10,000 reward was being offered for information on the girl’s whereabouts or information about what led to her disappearance.
Investigators were also searching for anyone who saw Graham’s pickup truck parked or driving in the Clear Creek Road area on Wednesday evening, July 1.
The vehicle was described as a 1990 dark blue, full-size extra cab, Chevrolet pickup with flat black paint on the side panels, black rims, no license plates, and a cow bell hanging underneath the front bumper.