In addition to CART, the CERT team (Citizens Emergency Response Team) assisted with the search. Murphy said of all the recent high-profile missing girl cases the Salt Lake Valley has had in recent years — Elizabeth Smart in 2002, Lori Hacking in 2004, Norton in 2006 — this was the most organized and the largest initial law enforcement response investigators have ever had.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Rex Mulholland said background checks on each searcher were being conducted per the guidelines established by the Department of Justice on conducting searches for missing children.

"It's something that's got to be done," said Ed Smart who has been an activist for finding missing children since his daughter's abduction.

Many times a kidnapping suspect will return to help join the search effort to throw off investigators, Smart said. "You don't want to put others in harm's way."

In conducting background checks, investigators were looking for outstanding warrants, criminal records and whether the person had ever been on the sex offender registry. At least two searchers were turned away because of their criminal backgrounds.

Moo was a student at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, but the school is currently off track.

Snyder said the young girl had a nickname, pronounced Dah-bo-mu. But her English was very limited, Van Dyke said.

Representatives of the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office were on the scene of the crime late Tuesday night. Officers said they were preparing a search warrant for the apartment.

As the search efforts were called off late Tuesday, a small group of people gathered outside the apartment complex for a vigil. Search volunteers and neighbors lit candles and held photographs of the girl.

Brandie Egelston, who lives in the complex with her 4-year-old daughter, said children are always playing together outside the apartments.

"It could have been any of them," she said.

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Contributing: Aaron Falk

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com