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Feb 8, 2006 11:31 am US/Central
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Underwater Camera Used In Search For SCSU Student
St. Cloud, Minn. (AP) ―
The search for a missing St. Cloud State University student is a family effort.
Allan Radel has been the public face of the family of 21-year-old Scot Radel, who disappeared while bar-hopping in downtown St. Cloud, Minn. last Thursday night. He fields calls from reporters, friends and strangers about his son, and he appears on TV.
His daughter, Stephanie, 16, organized the leafleting effort.
His wife, Randee, stayed back home in Owatonna, Minn. so she could answer all three family phone lines in case Scot calls.
"If a call came in, I wanted to be damned sure she was there to take it," Allan Radel said. "My main objective was to get to St. Cloud and find my son."
But on Tuesday, the exhausted 59-year-old father had to hand over coordinating the volunteer effort to his oldest son, Jeff Radel, 41, who carried a notebook in which he enters every bit of information he can, including names and numbers for volunteers.
Scot was last heard from about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, when he called friends to get directions to the Press Bar & Parlor. Police spent two days searching a 100-block area in central St. Cloud. They also searched by boat on the nearby Mississippi River, where footprints that might have been left behind by Scot were found.
Authorities began another search of the river on Tuesday night, using a remote-controlled underwater video camera loaned by the St. Louis County sheriff's office. Nothing had been found by Wednesday morning.
Police were using the underwater device to search above the dam near St. Cloud State, where the water is about 20 feet deep. It can dive to depths of 60 feet. Operators control the 12-pound device with a joystick and can watch its progress on a sonar screen. It has an arm that can grab objects.
"It's a fairly rapid way to search," Police Chief Dennis Ballantine said.
But it's also a challenge to use it in the river's current. St. Louis County Undersheriff Dave Phillips compared controlling the device to landing a helicopter on the side of a mountain in a blizzard.
The Radels adopted Scot from South Korea in 1985, when he was not quite a year old. He turned 21 on Jan. 5. They adopted his younger brother Kyle from the same orphanage.
"We're a very mixed family, but a very, very tight family," Allan Radel said.
Dozens of friends and family members from the Owatonna area have driven in to help search, answer phones and distribute leaflets.
"All we can do is cover all our bases. There hasn't been time to eat, and when I try, I can't keep anything down," Allan Radel said.
The Radels insist there's no possibility that Scot ran away, calling him happy, gregarious and well-adjusted.
"No money issues, no work issues, no school problems, no love-life problems," his father said. "This young man had everything going for him."
Police Capt. Sue Stawarski wished she could offer the family more hope.
"There's absolutely no indication of foul play, but my gut tells me we won't be able to give the dad and his family the conclusion they want," she said.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)