Family, friends and even strangers gathered at the Public Square in Murfreesboro to pray for the safe return of a missing Rutherford County teenager.
Riverdale High School football player Devin Bond, 16, disappeared last Friday and is believed to have been armed with a gun.
Officials last pinged his phone in the Tiger Hill area in Murfreesboro before it turned off on Saturday.
Murfreesboro Officials Search For Missing 16-Year-Old
Search For Missing Riverdale Student Continues
Major Bill Sharp of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office believed that he may have been picked up from the Thompson Road area where K9's last tracked his scent.
"We have been doing searches and searched where the dogs have gone to but we don't have a location," Major Sharp told NewsChannel 5.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol and Murfreesboro Police Department have offered assistance. Major Sharp said finding Bond has been a big priority for the department.
"Our main concern is we want Devin to come home," Sharp emphasized.
The exhaustive effort started on Friday and continued until this week.
On Wednesday, there was a possible sighting of the teenager but it turned out false.
In the meantime, the community has rallied for the family by conducting its own searches on Thursday and Friday.
Jason Bennett of the Murfreesboro Cold Patrol is helping with the searches which will cover the same area where his phone was last pinged.
"We are hoping to find him and help find closure for the family," Bennett told NewsChannel 5. "We spend a lot of time working with homeless folks in the woods so I figured we can help."
Sharp worries the community searches may contaminate possible evidence but Bennett reassured that they will call authorities if they come across anything vital to the investigation.
The searches will start at 8 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and will meet at the parking lot of the Walmart on Joe B Jackson Parkway.
A candlelight vigil for Bond has also been scheduled on Saturday, April 8th at 7:30 p.m. at Barfield Crescent Park.