Where is Sarah Stern? Volunteers needed for Saturday search

NEPTUNE CITY - Friends and family will take to the shoreline in their search for Sarah Stern who was last seen almost a week ago at her Neptune City home.

Sterns father, Michael Stern, said friends, family and volunteers will meet in Ocean Grove on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. at the Boardwalk Pavilion Praise on the boardwalk at Ocean Avenue and Ocean Pathway. The search will then spread out to Long Branch, Deal, Allenhurst, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Bradley Beach, Avon, Belmar, Spring Lake, Sea Girt and Manasquan to search the water and nearby wooded area for signs of his daughter.

Michael Stern said he is hoping for around 200 people to volunteer despite the predicted cold. He is conflicted as to what to expect from the search and hopes that some answers will come from the search that will give a better idea of what happened to Sarah.

"I'm trying to eliminate along with a lot of other people anything that Sarah might be still out there, maybe she ended up in the water somehow. I want to think she's alive and well and okay. We really want to do a search with a lot of people to see if we can find a clue and shut the door on some possibilities. We can eliminate the water and look other places" Michael said.

She took television production courses at Brookdale and had traveled to Toronto last October for the Buffer Festival and to Florida for Thanksgiving but has had no indication that she may have returned there without telling him.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said a number of agencies including Belmar Police, the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit, Neptune City Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are all involved in the search for Stern whose car was found parked on the Route 35 bridge between Neptune Township and Belmar last Friday night with the keys inside.

Police were expected to use helicopters and make aerial searches of the ocean on Friday and during the weekend, according to Michael Stern, but he said police were just as "baffled" as his family and her friends about her disappearance.

A search of the water of the Shark River Inlet below last Saturday and Sunday failed to find Stern. “We are asking everyone to keep an eye out for this young woman, and report any possible sightings as soon as possible,” Gramiccioni said.

Stern's cousin Lauren Bahr spearheaded the effort to get Stern's picture out on social media. “It’s a very strange situation. Everybody just doesn’t understand. Everybody is worried and concerned,” Bahr said.

Stern is described as a 19-year-old white female who stands about 5-foot 6-inches tall and weighing about 130 lbs. with a medium complexion, long dark brown hair that hangs past her shoulders and brown eyes.

A flyer by Monmouth County Crime Stoppers said it is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to the “identification, arrest and prosecution of any suspects” in Stern’s disappearance. But Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman said officials haven’t yet determined if there was any criminality involved.

Gramiccioni  said anyone with information about Stern should call the Prosecutor's Office at 732-431-7160 or Belmar Police at 732-681-1700.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

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