CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Authorities were looking for a knife when they searched the Carlsbad home of Eric Sears' friend, who told them three days earlier that Eric was dead, 10News reported.

MISSING HIKER Eric Sears Web Site Search For Missing Hiker Takes Disturbing Turn Police Search Friend Of Missing Hiker's Home Community Holds Vigil Search For Missing Carlsbad Hiker

Court documents released Monday show that the search warrant was issued based on conflicting statements from Sears' friend, 17, and evidence gathered at the Jumbo Rocks campground in Joshua Tree National Park, where Eric's body was found July 23.

The friend's identity cannot be identified because he is a juvenile.

Authorities also were looking for an 8-inch knife they said the friend's father had removed from the scene, 10News reported.

Eric's friend remains a "focus" of the investigation. The cause of death has not been determined, pending toxicology reports.

The friend told authorities that he last saw Eric near the campsite July 15. That afternoon, he asked nearby campers to drive him to the ranger station, where he reported Eric missing.

The friend was wearing only boxer undershorts and had no explanation for what happened to his clothing. The warrant said that searchers found his shorts, which were blood-stained.

During questioning on July 18, the friend first said Eric disappeared in the park after they drank tea made of Jimson weed, an hallucinogenic drug. The friend later broke down during a polygraph test and said he and Eric argued because the keys to Eric's truck were lost.

The friend told authorities that when he awakened later in the tent, he found Eric blue and lying face down without a pulse, according to 10News.

"(The friend) said he carried Sears to a toilet and placed him inside," the affidavit said.

A short while later, the friend asked to see his mother. He told her what he had said and claimed investigators had forced him to say he put Eric's body in a toilet.

"That's not where I put him," the warrant quotes him saying.

The warrant also said the friend's father, who had been told to stay out of the search area, identified himself as a volunteer searcher to gain access to the knife. As an officer escorted him out, the father reached into Eric's pickup and removed a Bowie-type knife, which the officer let him keep.

For more information, visit the Sears family Web site at www.ericsears.com.