
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993                   TAG: 9306150287
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BY PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

SEARCH FOR COUPLE CONTINUES

Members of a Wythe County church have offered a $2,000 reward for the return of their retired minister, Paul Freeman, and his wife, Rebecca, who have been missing since June 8.

"We have to see them before the reward will be given," said the Rev. Harold Coleman, current pastor of the Faith Tabernacle Church of Wytheville.

Church members were joined during the weekend by rescue-squad members in Wythe and Bland counties and other volunteers. Their searches on foot spanned back roads from the Freemans' home in the Windy Way subdivision west of Wytheville on U.S. 11 to both sides of Big Walker Mountain.

Paul Freeman, 85, and Rebecca Freeman, 76, left a Food Lion in Wytheville on June 8 about 4:30 p.m. in their white 1980 Ford Granada with a maroon top, license number HP23844. Neither they nor their car have been seen since.

Authorities are trying to locate the occupant or occupants of a red pickup truck reportedly parked near the Freemans' car in the store lot. They hope to determine if someone in the truck saw something.

"The only thing the police want to know right now is which way they were going and who was in the car with them," Coleman said. He said he hoped anyone with a red pickup truck in the Food Lion lot at that time would come forward.

Besides the foot searches, state police and other law enforcement agencies have been combing the area with helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Wythe County Sheriff Wayne Pike, who has been participating in searches with members of his department, said he felt that every remote road, trail, logging road and embankment had been checked out.

"You've got to realize you've got almost 500 square miles here, and it could have been overlooked, but I just don't feel like we've missed them. We've searched night and day," Pike said.

The sheriff said Monday that he even has had jail trusties searching roadways and remote areas "and thus far we don't have anything at all."

Coleman said the volunteers would gather to continue their search Saturday if no new developments have turned up by then.

by CNB