Missing Hayward nursing student Michelle Le's family organizes mega search during weekend

Last weekend, from Friday to Sunday, the family of missing Hayward nursing student Michelle Le organized a three-day search for her, canvassing the area in and around Niles Canyon in Fremont.

More than 450 volunteers took part in the search, including community volunteers, the KlaasKids Foundation, which is a Sausalito-based organization dedicated to stopping crimes against children, Team Amber which is the G.I. Joe Search Foundation, and about 30 of Michelle’s friends and family.

At a press conference Friday, law enforcement officials also turned up to offer assistance in different locations to search over the weekend.

Actually, most of the volunteers have never even met Michelle before. “They’ve just come up here and wanted to help. We’re just really touched by that,” Michelle’s cousin, Krystine Dinh said on Sunday.

Before all the volunteers started out for the search, they were trained in the morning by Brad Dennis, the director of search operations for the KlaasKids Foundation.

In order to make the search more effective, a command center was also set up as a meeting place for search parties, which was located at a Buddhist monastery at 25350 Cypress Avenue in Hayward.

So far, nothing specific has been found. Michelle's family is thinking of holding an additional search this weekend. Updated information will be posted at www.michellelemissing.com.In the long term, we will be organized, Dinh said. Until we get her home, we'll be running (the search) like an organization.

Le, a 26-year-old Hayward nursing student, went missing about 7 pm on May 27 while she was on a class break at Kaiser Permanente Hayward Medical Center.

Hayward police have classified Le's disappearance as a homicide, but family members will continue searching since the police have not provided any evidence of a homicide.