By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

STELLA, Mo. — Colleen Spears still keeps a vigil for her daughter from the top of the slope that leads to their Stella home.

As the search for her missing daughter reached its fifth day, Spears again spent part of Wednesday sitting in the front yard of their home and hugging a large, stuffed teddy bear to her chest.

“Right now, I am pretending this bear is a baby,” she said. “A mom cannot be upset holding a baby. I just wish it was my baby I was holding.”

Spears said she has not abandoned hope that her daughter, Rowan Ford, 9, will be found unharmed. The girl has been missing since late Friday or early Saturday.

But she acknowledged that it is getting harder to preserve that faith.

“It is getting to be real,” she said. “It is getting to be a roller coaster.”

More than 50 FBI personnel, largely agents, helped local authorities Wednesday continue the search for Rowan and the investigation into her disappearance. They combed fields and wooded areas, including the woods around Spears’ home at 777 Grove St., but still had found no sign of her.

“I wish this was a time I could tell you we found Rowan,” Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland told reporters at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

He later said, “All I can tell you is that every day she is missing, it is a negative.”

Copeland said authorities have not yet identified a suspect in the case, but they have not ruled anyone out as a suspect either. He said authorities still believe foul play is involved.

He said authorities are looking for a pink bedsheet that Rowan’s mother reported missing from the girl’s bedroom.

Asked how long authorities intended to continue the search, Copeland said no deadline has been established.

“I am sure at some point we are going to have to discuss that,” he said.