DUNKARD, Pa. -- More than 100 people from five states continued last night to search a remote three-mile area of Greene County for a 12-year-old girl who has been missing since Tuesday morning.

Gabrielle Miranda Bechen

State police search and rescue teams, volunteer firefighters and K-9 teams combed the hilly wooded area around Greensboro and Bobtown yesterday, hoping to find Gabrielle Miranda Bechen. Gabrielle had been missing since shortly after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday when she left her family's home on Presock Road to ride her all-terrain vehicle, Trooper Joseph Christy said.

Teams planned to continue searching throughout the night, but Trooper Christy said that police were asking for volunteers to help with the search this morning. Anyone who wants to assist is asked to meet at 8 a.m. today in a parking lot just off Exit 7 of Interstate 79, where authorities will divide the volunteers into search teams.

State police said Gabrielle frequently rides her quad ATV on roads and trails in the area, but her family said she always has returned at a reasonable time and has never gone missing before.

Her father, Christopher Bechen, 43, speaking to reporters yesterday afternoon, appealed for his daughter's safe return.

"She's in no trouble [if she wandered off]. We want her to call home and please let us know she's all right," Mr. Bechen said.

Gabrielle's mother, Blanche Bechen, 38, said the girl left between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Tuesday, information that was confirmed by two witnesses who saw her leave the family's driveway on the ATV.

She is permitted to ride the ATV within boundaries near the home, but not on any backwoods trails by herself, Mrs. Bechen said. Typically, the girl would have returned by 11:30 a.m. for lunch. When she did not, Mrs. Bechen got into her car and searched the area. Later, she called her husband, who works at Morgantown Technical Service in Mount Morris, and told him "you better come home."

They notified police around 2 p.m.

Troopers from the Waynesburg barracks and local firefighters began their own search, which continued through Tuesday night and into last night.

The parents said they had called Gabrielle's friends and relatives, but none had information about the girl's whereabouts.

Gabrielle, who recently completed sixth grade at Bobtown Elementary School, is 4 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 77 pounds, has brown eyes and brown hair with blond highlights, Trooper Christy said. She has pierced earlobes, one ear with a second piercing in the cartilage. When she left home, she was wearing tan shorts, a dark shirt and a black helmet. She also was carrying a backpack. She was riding a SunL 90cc quad that is black with flame decals on the fenders.

Trooper Christy said police must consider three possibilities: that Gabrielle could be injured, that she may have been abducted or that she has run away. He said they have no indication that she has run away, but "we're not ruling anything out."

"There are only three options there could be," he said. "None is more prevalent than the others. But we've got to look at all angles."

The girl's mother said there had been no altercation or disagreement that would have prompted the girl to run away.

In addition to searching for Gabrielle, police have checked and determined that no registered sex offenders live in the area, he said. But anyone who has information about her whereabouts or knows someone who recently acquired a quad ATV like hers is asked to contact authorities immediately, he said.

The quad is not very big, and authorities don't think she could have gone too far on it.

The number of searchers grew as word spread of her disappearance. At least four Greene County fire departments were on the scene yesterday along with search teams from Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the Washington, D.C., area.

Teams divided up sections of the search area, which covers about a three-mile radius from the family's home, and then swarmed over the rugged terrain on foot or riding on all-terrain vehicles.

The terrain is hilly, wooded and difficult to search. Searchers were joined by others using bloodhounds and trained dogs that they hoped would pick up the missing girl's scent.

Some of the girl's family remained in their mobile home on Presock Road while searchers fanned out from tents set up in an adjacent field. Other family members and friends joined the search.

Throughout the day the searchers on quads could be seen navigating up and down the hills between the gaps in the trees. A state police helicopter also has been searching from the air using a thermal imaging device.

Her family has offered a $500 reward for information about her whereabouts.