Search Continues for Missing Redding Teen

(REDDING, Calif.) - Friends of the family of missing 15-year old Jean Marie Berlinghoff in Redding, California, contacted Salem-News.com asking for our help in getting the word out about the search for this teenager who has been missing for 19 days.

Jean Marie Berlinghoff is with her uncle, a 44-year old man with a criminal record. Law enforcement agencies actively involved in the search considered her endangered.

At this point the vehicle has been found and they were traveling north at the time from Redding, California.

We were asked to republish the following newspaper account as it is the most current information available:

Deputies and volunteers looking for clues in the disappearance of Redding teenager Jean Marie Berlinghoff ended their search about midafternoon today without finding anything new.

With about 6 inches of snow on the ground, about 20 sheriff's deputies and 30 volunteers gathered this morning in the Sims Road area to continue the hunt for clues in Jean Berlinghoff's disappearance.

Shasta County sheriff's detectives found Charles Berlinghoff’s Oldsmobile in a snowy driveway off Mears Ridge Road in the Sims area on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the possible sighting of Charles Berlinghoff at a local market turned out to be unfounded, Shasta County Detective Sgt. John Hubbard said today. A U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer had contacted the unidentified man and determined it wasn't Charles Berlinghoff, Hubbard said.

Ali Lawton, a 21-year-old clerk at Ammirati’s Market in Castella, said Saturday that she may have seen Charles Berlinghoff several days earlier. The man had a shaved head and a braided goatee and had loitered outside the store for nearly 2½ days last week trying to flag down a ride.

Deputies set up a mobile command center in the area this morning and the search centered around where the car was found.

The Sheriff's Office also brought in several dogs to assist with the search. A California Highway Patrol helicopter circled overhead as searchers tromped through the snow.

Hubbard said today the searchers split up into two parties to check an area from where the car was found down to the Sacramento River.

Hubbard didn't know how exactly how large the search area is, but he described it as "huge."

Searchers checked the area for any evidence that will help locate Jean or Charles, Hubbard said.

She said she told them a man with a shaved head and a braided goatee had loitered outside the store for nearly 2½ days last week trying to flag down a ride.

She said the man looked eerily like the picture of Charles Berlinghoff on the flier that deputies handed her Saturday.

Charles Berlinghoff's car is still being searched for evidence and the Sheriff's Office may have found some useful evidence, though Hubbard couldn't say specifically what that might be.

Compounding the search efforts are a fresh layer of snow that's fallen since the car was found and differing accounts of how long the car was there before it was found.

Hubbard said some people have said the car was there for a few days, others have said it was there for a week and some have said it was there for a couple of weeks.

The Sheriff's Office is in contact with law enforcement from as far north as Josephine County in southern Oregon, down to Yolo County, Hubbard said.

He also said his office has been flooded with calls and tips and every one is being checked.

Jacob Berlinghoff, Jean's father, arrived at the roadblock on Mears Ridge Road just before 10:30 a.m. today.

Deputies did not let him past the roadblock because the search area was considered a crime scene, he said.

“We are on 19 days and we still have no idea where they could be at," Jacob Berlinghoff said today.

Charles “Charlie” Berlinghoff is wanted on a $100,000 Shasta County warrant charging him with keeping Jean from her parents.

Charles Berlinghoff has a history of sex crimes, but he’s not a registered sex offender, and his convictions have been expunged or dismissed.

Secret Witness of Shasta County Inc. and an anonymous source have each offered $5,000 — $10,000 in all — for information leading to Charles Berlinghoff’s arrest and conviction.