TUNICA, MS - It's day four of searching for George Nicholson in Tunica, and no luck.
The 83-year-old Fayette County man's truck was found abandoned in the Tunica Cutoff last week. That truck has been cleared by the state crime lab and no fingerprints other than Nicholson's nor evidence of foul play were found.
The area that the crews are searching is large, and the sheriff's office says it could be days before they find anything. Even so, officers say they're committed to looking and aren't planning on quitting.
The spot they're searching is made up of miles and miles of woods, tall grass and farm fields. They have to search through all of it because Nicholson could be anywhere, and they have no way to narrow it down.
Searchers started looking in the last confirmed location they have, where Nicholson's truck was found deep in the woods last week.
"We've searched all the access roads and the cabins," says Louise Linzy, an investigator with the sheriff's office. "There are plenty of other areas we'll continue looking. But you have to be mindful that it is a large area to be searching."
Crews were joined Monday, July 25, 2011, by a helicopter team from DeSoto County, authorities hoping they can see by air what's difficult to access by foot.
"We're going to do everything we can to search the area as completely as we possibly can," says Linzy.
"It's real thick," says George Nicholson's son, Nick. "You come out of the woods after about a mile then there are open fields."
He's working his way through those woods and fields looking for any sign of his father. He's also driving his father's truck since authorities have now ruled it out of their investigation.
"The truck came back clean," Nicholson says.
"There were no fingerprints of anyone else, no other hairs or fiber of anyone else," adds Linzy.
But what's troubling searchers is they still haven't found any sign of Nicholson.
"Right now, we're not for certain as to when the search will end," Linzy says. "We're just taking it day by day at this point."
And officers say even if it goes into day eight, 10 or 12, they won't stop until every possible location has been searched.
