Near the seventh day of detectives searching tirelessly for the missing teen, who was still unidentified, a local police officer noticed a black van—matching the description from the witness—stopped at a petrol station. The driver was dressed in black attire, his face obscured from Officer Wilson's vision. He filled the van up for less than a minute. Officer Wilson made the quick decision of borrowing a civilian's car to follow the man, ditching his police vehicle—which was fortunately not in sight from the petrol station—in attempt to not attract attention. Immediately calling for backup, he waited for other officers to arrive on scene, before they entered the premises.