More Tools Employed In Search For Missing Charlotte Man

More efforts are underway to try to find a Charlotte man who disappeared after leaving an uptown bar last week.

Searchers with dogs started to scour the streets Wednesday afternoon near where 24-year-old Kyle Fleischmann made his last phone calls around 3:30 a.m. Friday. They’re hoping with the lack of rain, his scent may still remain to point the dogs in the right direction.

Several search groups that use dogs will also take to the streets all day Saturday if he’s not found by then.

In addition, a local advertising company worked with the family to put up a billboard featuring Fleischmann’s face, and Mike Gibbons is making hundreds of buttons with his picture – all to get the word out that the young man is missing in hopes that anyone with information about his whereabouts will come forward.

Gibbons, who owns his own business making buttons for memorials and fundraisers, said this is the first time he’s made them featuring a missing person.

“Essentially, you now have the opportunity to get out hundreds or thousands of the face of Kyle, and the really neat thing is as people wear those buttons, they're going to be asked 'What's that button?'” Gibbons said.

He hopes that will lead to answers.

The Kristen Foundation is helping with the button campaign. The Fleischmanns teamed up with the missing person’s group this week. It’s named after Kristen Moddafferi, an 18-year-old Charlotte teen who disappeared in California in 1997.

Organinzer Joan Petruski said the missing person's age shouldn't be a factor when it comes to people who have disappeared.

“Comments like, 'Well he's over 18, he knows what he's doing, he probably walked away, he just wanted to go somewhere else and not let anybody know,' that's not true, and even if it is, he's missing (and his family and friends) want to find him,” she said.

Loved ones said the search will go on each day this week, and possibly every day until he is found.