New search for Mary Lands Sunday; Still no leads

Marshall, Mich. (WZZM) - They've been searching for five years, but they won't give up until they can bring their daughter home.

The parents of Mary Lands and members of yet another search group covered an area in Marshall Sunday afternoon.

They say they don't expect to find her alive, but they still hope to find clues that can at least lead to Mary's remains and with that, some peace.

"We are waiting to see if the new set of dogs have hit any place or picked up anything from the last time," said Clifford Marshall, Mary's Father.

And maybe this time, Tucker the dog will be the one to find something that will bring a clue as to where Mary Lands is.

"I think everybody wants to help us put it to rest. It's been a hard 5 years," said Marshall.

But even though it seems nearly impossible that any trace of Mary could still exist, Pam Lamson with Track Missing says these dogs have been known to uncover almost anything.

"He's trained to detect human remains so anything that is human in substance, blood, hair, teeth, bone, skeletal remains," said Lamson.

And they don't just use their noses. "Quite often you will see dogs like this tasting the water they are working," said Lamson.

So Mary Lands' parents wait to see if any clue is found.

Mary was 39 when she disappeared from the apartment she shared with her boyfriend. She left her money in the bank, left her brand new Dodge Durango in the driveway and left no trace of what happened to her. Her parents believe she is dead.

"It is very important to put her to rest and go ahead and we want to cremate her remains, whatever is left of her," said Marshall.

Which is why they will continue to conduct searches like this until they find her or someone has the courage to tell them where she is.

"It has been awful hard. It's been rough," said Marshall.

Sunday's search did not turn up any new evidence. Mary's parents say there is another search scheduled for September.

That one will be on a much larger scale with 200 people coming from all over the country with more search dogs.