SAN DIEGO -- The search for 2-year-old Jahi Turner split into two separate groups of people Tuesday, according to 10News.

A group based out of Moose Hall, the Jahi Search Center, produced more than 1,000 volunteers that took to the streets and canyon areas around the playground where the boy's stepfather said he had last seen the toddler.

MISSING JAHI TURNER Light-skinned African-American 30 pounds, 30 inches tall Black hair Wearing blue "Winnie the Pooh" T-shirt, blue pants, and gray tennis shoes INFORMATION SDPD Juvenile Hotline: (619) 744-9521 Tip Hotline: (619) 235-8477 Download A Missing Flyer SOUND OFF Share Your Thoughts

After days of searching a nearly 20-square-mile area and passing out nearly 30,000 fliers bearing Jahi's picture, organizers said Sunday that they had done all they could.

"We've saturated all the areas," Bill Garcia, who coordinated the volunteer search effort, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Without any new information, it's going to be kind of difficult to go into any new areas."

But a second search, driven by Jahi's grandmother, Penny Thompson, got under way around 7 p.m. Tuesday night in Mountain View.

Ellie Elmore had been with the group based out of Moose Hall.

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Two Search Efforts To Choose From

"Penny is Jahi's grandmother. And she has every right to do whatever she wants to do for her grandson. We can't dispute it or anything, we praise it," she said.

Tuesday she was basically by herself in the empty hall.

"We're not closed. We're taking a step back, because there's an area that has already been searched -- Golden Hill. It's been completely saturated and we don't want to have to send volunteers back over and over," Elmore said.

She said that in a couple of days the Jahi Search Center will pick up the pace looking for Jahi. That's always been their goal, Elmore said, and there's nothing they can do if the boy's family wants to launch their own search.

"She's grandma. She's got her own fire to fight right now. There shouldn't be any competition. We don't have a competition with her," Elmore said. "We're available if she wants any information ... But she has not contacted us on that. She's more than welcome to call."

Police say Tieray Jones, 23, left his stepson at a Balboa Park play area with a woman and two other children for about 15 minutes while he went to a nearby soda machine the afternoon of April 25.

When he returned, Jahi was gone, along with the others, the man reported.

Police have declined to address news reports that Jahi apparently was not where his stepfather said he was the day he went missing, or that Jones failed a lie-detector test.

The Union-Tribune reported that police did not find the boy's fingerprints on recreation equipment in the playground off 28th and Beech streets, where Jones said they had been that Thursday.

Police have continued to appeal to the mystery woman Jones described seeing at the park near his home to come forward and report whatever relevant facts she might know.

The child's mother, Tameka Jones, 18, is a sailor who was at sea when her son disappeared. Her Navy commanders allowed her to immediately return to shore to help in the search.

Jahi is 2 1/2 feet tall, light-skinned African American who weighs about 30 pounds.

At the time of his disappearance, he was last wearing a blue, long-sleeve "Winnie the Pooh" T-shirt, blue nylon pants with an orange drawstring and gray Michael Jordan tennis shoes, according to his stepfather.

Police urged anyone with information concerning Jahi's whereabouts to call the SDPD's Central Division "juvenile hotline" at (619) 744-9521, or San Diego County Crime Stoppers' anonymous tip service at (619) 235-8477.