NIU held a meeting Tuesday afternoon in the multi-purpose room in the Stevenson Complex to update the surrounding community on the effort to find student Antinette “Toni” Keller, who has been missing since Thursday.

The meeting was led by Brian Hemphill, vice president of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, who updated the audience of over 80 students, university employees and DeKalb residents on what has been done to find Keller, and what the community can do to assist.

NIU Police Chief Donald Grady was the first to speak.

“We were notified that something was wrong Friday at 6:09 p.m.,” Grady said. “We first searched her residence hall and conducted interviews with her friends. We were in the wooded area she was last seen with flashlights by 9 p.m. We resumed the search at 6 a.m. the next morning.”

K-9 Units were dispatched from Neptune North residence hall Saturday at 1 p.m., but the dogs did not follow a trail to the wooded area. The dogs stopped tracking when they were near Interstate 88. The process was repeated Sunday with different dogs, and the tracking session ended with the same result, Grady said.

Sunday, NIU Police performed two grid-by-grid searches of the entire campus, including residence halls and academic buildings.

NIU Police Sgt. Alan Smith said Keller’s dorm key was found out in the woods. He added that was the only item of her’s found in the search.

Smith said the ground search has ended as of Tuesday, but the investigation is ongoing.

Now that the physical search is over, NIU is focused on getting the community involved.

Hemphill was clear that the community’s help is needed in this time of crisis, but not in the form of search parties.

“It’s very dangerous for any students to be in the [wooded] area,” Hemphill said. “I would not encourage students to go in the woods.”

Smith said if students do participate in a search, they should use caution.

“We’re not discouraging it, but students who are doing a search for Keller should use caution,” Smith said.

Ben Yamamoto, freshman photography major who lives on the same floor as Keller, said he felt disheartened when Hemphill told those in attendance not go out looking for Keller themselves.

Yamamoto felt the area wasn’t unsafe as said during the meeting.

“I’ve already gone out there and it’s not as dangerous as the police have made it out to be,” Yamamoto said.

As for the search party, he said they probably won’t go out to the wooded area because of the police involvement.

Hemphill said he hopes the community will band together to raise awareness through the distribution of flyers and creation of buttons and ribbons. Students will also have the opportunity to send their well-wishes to Keller’s family in the form of cards.

“We’re all community and we’re looking out for another Huskie,” said Jordan Casey, sophomore communications major, who attended the meeting.

There was no shortage of students interested in helping at the meeting.

“I’m trying to coordinate a Greek-wide pool of human resources,” said Ricky Mitacek, sophomore business management major and member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. “There are well over a few hundred members [of the Greek community], and we need to come together to help the school.”

Mitacek said that his group would be willing to work with the university to help in any way possible.

Yamamoto is the creator behind the Missing Antinette Keller page on Facebook, which was made soon after she went missing.

Yamamoto said this was his way of helping in the search.

“I didn’t feel like anything was being done,” Yamamoto said. “The page was something that needed to be done.”

Since the page began, Yamamoto said he has received a lot of messages from others who want to help incluing Greek organizations and the DeKalb Fire Department.

While students are offering their help, the university is returning the favor.

The Counseling and Student Development Center will be open through Thursday to meet with students affected by Keller’s sudden disappearance.

Hemphill addressed concerns for students or their parents not feeling safe.

“The university doesn’t feel there is any reason to feel unsafe on campus,” he said.

Hemphill said there had been rumors passed around that Keller was abducted.

“There is no evidence pointing to that,” he said.

The university has received numerous calls coming in from concerned parents since Keller went missing. Hemphill encouraged students to reach out to their parents and give them details regarding Keller’s disappearance.

“We want students to contribute and help move the search forward,” Hemphill said.

Any new information regarding Keller will be released on the NIU website, the NIU Northern Today blog and the NIU Facebook page. The university is planning on setting up a hotline where callers can have their questions answered about the search.

Brad Hoey, team leader for NIU media relations and internal communications, said The Division of Student Affairs has not created a hotline, but is still addressing calls and concerns from students and parents.

Hoey said the NIU switchboard is also responding to calls asking for information about Keller.