Search resumes for missing Caleigh Harrison

ROCKPORT, Mass. (WHDH) -- Crews returned to a Gloucester beach Wednesday to search for clues in the disappearance of 2-year-old Caleigh Harrison. The renewed search came days after a piece of clothing believed to have belonged to the missing girl washed ashore.

Officials combed through the area where pieces of pants that likely belonged to Caleigh were found in a lobster trap. It was the largest search since the day Caleigh went missing last April.

“They’re the right size, they’re the right color, they’re the right brand. That’s the way I feel that those are her pants,” said Anthony Harrison, Caleigh’s father.

The pants washed up with the fragments of a lobster trap on Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester Friday, one beach over from where she disappeared seven months ago.

“Because of the last couple weeks’ storm activity and some unusual storm surges we have an exceptionally large amount of debris above the high-tide line,” said one official.

It is believed Caleigh was swept out to sea. At first the girl’s parents didn’t want to believe the toddler drowned, but that has changed since the discovery of the pink pants.

“I don’t want to hope to find anything because…I want to find my daughter, but on the same hand I want to find something so we can be done with it. It’s a really tough emotion to deal with,” said Allison Hammond, Caleigh’s mother.

Caleigh was playing near a footbridge on Long Beach in Rockport with her mother, 4-year-old sister and dog when the ball they were playing with bounced over a wall. Caleigh’s mother went to retrieve the ball and when she looked back Caleigh was no longer standing with her older sister.

“Long, it was long enough obviously that day I knew it was too long. I was almost in a panic mode when I did turn around to go back to the kids,” said Hammond.

Wednesday’s search focused on the beach with the use of volunteers and canines, but they didn’t find any new evidence.