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Search Area Expands Nearly 3 Weeks After Sierra LaMar's Disappearance

MORGAN HILL (CBS SF) - The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office searched parts of San Martin and Gilroy Thursday for missing teenager Sierra LaMar.

Sierra, 15, has been missing since March 16, when she failed to show up for school on a Friday morning.

Thursday's search was being conducted by about 20 members of the sheriff's search-and-rescue team, and will involve K-9 units, sheriff's officials said.

Last week, hundreds of volunteers searched an area near LaMar's home after the sheriff's office reclassified the case as abduction rather than a possible runaway.

The most recent development in the case came last Thursday, when searchers found an empty box labeled "stainless steel handcuffs," near a couple of used condoms.

It was not clear if the items, discovered by KlaasKids Foundation volunteers, have any connection to the case, sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said.

More than 1,000 tips have been received by phone and email, all of which are being followed up on, investigators said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call sheriff's investigators at (408) 808-4500 or the anonymous tip line at (408) 808-4431.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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