Search continues for missing 11-year-old girl

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Deputies are looking for volunteers to help with the search for Jenna Irmler, who may now have spent a second night in the woods or neighborhood around her Brandon home.

The 11-year-old, who has Asperger's syndrome, was last seen around 9 p.m. Tuesday night.  Her family discovered that she was missing around 5 a.m. yesterday.  Deputies issued an alert for her a few hours later.

Since then, there have been no sightings of Jenna, who's known to play in the woods on her own.  Her family told investigators that it's not uncommon for her to go out walking, but not for this long.

A video posted on Jenna's YouTube channel on February 12 shows her walking through the woods, explaining, "I do like walking in here. It does calm me down."

Deputies have spent the last day combing through the woods, looking for Jenna from the ground and from the air.  Neighbors and friends from Nativity Catholic School joined in, but there has been no sign of her.

Detectives have also checked in with known sexual offenders and predators within a five-mile radius but that did not turn up any leads.

This morning, Col. Donna Lusczynski said anyone who wants to help search should check in with deputies at Bell Shoals Baptist Church at 2102 Bell Shoals Road in Brandon.

"There's a large area of woods and waterways that we're searching," she explained.  "If people in the neighborhoods here want to do something, we'd ask them again to keep their eyes out: search their property; look in their cars, under their cars. She may have just taken some place to hide."

Jenna was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt and black sweatpants with a pink stripe on the side. She's 5 feet and 2 inches tall, 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Because she has Asperger's syndrome, Jenna may not be inclined to approach strangers or even law enforcement.  So anyone who spots her is asked to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at 813-247-8200.