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Police May Scale Back Search for Missing Queens Teen, Kelly Says

By Ben Fractenberg | October 21, 2013 5:15pm | Updated on October 22, 2013 8:59am
 Police may have to scale down the search for Avonte Oquendo after more than two weeks of scouring the city have not led to the recovery of the missing autistic teen.
Police May Scale Back Avonte Search
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LONG ISLAND CITY — The NYPD may have to scale back the search for Avonte Oquendo because there have been no "credible" sightings of the missing autistic teen in the more than two weeks since he disappeared, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday.

More than 100 officers have been involved in the search since Oquendo went missing from his Long Island City school on Oct. 4, Kelly said.

The NYPD has received more than 200 tips, had scuba divers doing daily searches in the water near where the teen went missing and used helicopters to survey rooftops as part of their search.

"We are doing feasibly everything we can do," Kelly said.

Apart from scouring the city, police have also interviewing "virtually everyone" who is in the sex offender registery for abusing a child under the age of 16, Kelly added.

Hundreds of volunteers have also joined the search for Avonte, handing out thousands of fliers and doing daily canvases throughout the city.

Oquendo was last seen wearing a gray striped shirt, black jeans and black sneakers when he left his school at 1-50 51st Ave. in Long Island City, police said. He is 5-foot-3 and weighs 125 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES), then entering TIP577.