Still hope of finding missing teenager alive
Police searching for missing Northampton teenager Steven Vernon have insisted they have not given up hope of finding him alive.
Officers say tae kwon do enthusiast Steven, aged 19, from Bellinge, was jogging around the reservoir in Sywell Country Park with a female friend, also aged 19, on Tuesday evening when he said he wanted to go for a swim in the lake.
His friend wanted to continue jogging, and saw him taking off his clothes to get into the water as she ran off to do another lap of the lake.
When she reached the point where she had left him, she found his clothes on the bank but no sign of him, and raised the alarm at about 8.45pm.
Chief Insp Andrew Collins, who is coordinating the search, said yesterday that the force wanted to emphasise the investigation is still a missing persons inquiry and not a full-scale body search.
He said: "This is still a missing persons inquiry from the circumstances that no one has seen Steven go into the water or in the water.
Sywell reservoir is the last location he was seen, which is why we are still searching there. With an inquiry of this type we will concentrate our efforts there but we are not ruling out any other lines of inquiry.
"It could be that Steven went off and it could be a bit of a prank, we really want to stress that if he is out there we want him to get in contact with us."
Officers from specialist underwater search team Spartan Rescue used hi-tech sonar devices and cameras to search the lake bed.
Chief Insp Collins said the equipment was more effective with the depth of the lake than using divers, since divers will only gather information on what they see and feel, whereas the equipment can conclusively say whether or not an object is within its range.
He added that police would like to hear from anyone who may have seen a man and a woman jogging together around the lake or a man barefoot, wearing only a pair of long shorts in the park or the immediate area of Sywell.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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