Volunteers Search For Missing Student

A large group of volunteers, many of them UMass Dartmouth students, gathered near Chase and Town roads Saturday morning, steeling themselves for a rigorous and emotional day.

They were preparing to search for clues about a fellow UMass student, Neo Babson Maximus, who disappeared a year ago into the woods near campus.

Mr. Maximus, who changed his legal name from Charles Allen Jr., vanished on Oct. 13, 2007. The 22-year-old student was last seen allegedly trying to break into a house on College Lane Road.

The amateur searchers had attended a training session Friday evening to prepare themselves for the "line search" across four square miles of fields and woods around the university.

Meanwhile, other groups of professional search-and-rescue personnel arrived from across New England to assist with the effort. About 200 people arrived at the command post Saturday morning, including volunteers from the Bristol County Sheriff's Department, the American Red Cross and four private investigation firms.