CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. —
A major search is underway Wednesday for two missing Catawba County teens.
Friends and family members have put up hundreds of fliers, hoping they will help find Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce.
No one has heard from them for three days.
Eyewitness News saw some students from Bandys High School leave Tuesday afternoon with a stack of fliers to put up along one of the routes to Myrtle Beach.
Zig Ziegler showed Eyewitness News the route he took by plane, looking for any sign of his son, Jake, and his friend Ray Pierce. Family members said neither teenager has used his cell phone since early Saturday morning to text or call any family members or friends.
“When their phones went dead at pretty much the same time, it almost indicates to me there was an accident,” Ziegler said.
Sheriff’s deputies said they have no reason to suspect foul play, but they are concerned because the last place they were able to trace the phones was to a cell tower in Rock Hill. They also told Channel 9 there has been no activity in their bank accounts, and family members said they haven't used a credit card.
Some of their classmates were in South Carolina on Tuesday, hoping for find answers.
“We are just trying to keep positive,” student Cassidy Peeler said. “We are going to try our hardest to find them safe and sound.”
“I think something happened to them. And I'm just hoping we find them today -- very soon,” student Chance McNahan said.
Jake Ziegler's mom clung to a picture of her son, praying that he and Ray Pierce come home safe.
“We just want them to come home,” Sue Ziegler said. “They are not in trouble. Nothing will happen. I've never in my life prayed for my son to be stupid, but I'm praying that right now. I'm praying he is just out there doing something stupid.”
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