SAN DIEGO -- Authorities are searching for a toddler who disappeared from a playground in the Golden Hill area while on an outing with his stepfather, 10News reported.

MISSING JAHI TURNER Light-Skinned African-American 30 pounds, 30" tall Black hair Wearing blue long-sleeved "Winnie the Pooh" T-shirt, blue nylon pants with an orange drawstring, and gray tennis shoes INFORMATION Tip Hotline: (619) 531-2000 Volunteers: (619) 744-9521 Download A Missing Flyer SOUND OFF Share Your Thoughts

Crews combed swaths of Balboa Park and nearby canyons through the night after Tieray Jones, 23, told San Diego police that 2-year-old Jahi Turner had disappeared from a playground area near 28th and Beech streets about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

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Search For Jahi Grows More Intense Reaction From Boy's Family Many San Diegans Want To Help

Those involved in the efforts to find Jahi included 60 San Diego Sheriff's Department personnel and 53 San Diego police officers and detectives, the SDPD's David Cohen told reporters at an impromptu briefing Friday outside a search command post set up next to the park.

The search is "without a doubt" the most extensive such local effort since 7-year-old Danielle van Dam disappeared from her Sabre Springs home on Feb. 1, Cohen said.

The missing boy's stepfather told police Thursday he last saw Jahi before going to get a soda at a nearby vending machine while the boy was playing with several other children in the park with their mother.

Jones said that when he returned, about 15 minutes later, his stepson and all the others were gone, according to 10News.

Cohen said the children the missing toddler was playing with were described by Jones (pictured, right) as age 2 and 4 and their mother was a "white female."

Patrol officers Thursday afternoon fanned out through the park and nearby ravines, roadsides and open areas, searching for the missing boy into the evening hours with the help of an SDPD helicopter crew and a San Diego Sheriff's Department search and rescue team joined the search last night, SDPD Lt. Shelley Zimmerman said.

Authorities will again search the area around the park from which the child was reported missing and will conduct a "house to house" search within a two-block radius of the playground Friday, Cohen said.

Jahi's natural father lives in Maryland and was recently released from "jail or prison," in that state, Cohen said, adding that police have talked with him and "do not believe that he is any way involved in this."

It was not immediately known what crime may have led to the father's incarceration.

The child's mother, Tameka Jones,(pictured, left), 18, is a Navy seaman who left San Diego on Monday for a weeklong cruise on the dock landing ship USS Rushmore, Cohen said.

Jahi was described as a light-skinned African-American, weighing about 30 pounds, 30 inches tall, and having black hair.

When he disappeared, the boy was wearing a blue long-sleeved "Winnie the Pooh" T-shirt, blue nylon pants with an orange drawstring and gray tennis shoes, police said.

Authorities plan to continue the search for the toddler "as long as we feel we have a chance of finding something that is going to lead us to the boy," Cohen said.