Police remained on scene outside a Valley Gardens home on Saturday as the search continues for missing teenager Cooper Nemeth.

One police car could still be seen at the home Saturday morning.

Nemeth was last seen in the early morning hours of Feb. 14 in the Valley Gardens area. On Friday, Winnipeg police officers executed a search warrant at a home in the first 100 block of Treger Bay, where witnesses told CTV they saw people removing items from the home.

On Saturday, police confirmed to CTV that they have not found Nemeth’s body. Although they have brought in the resources of the homicide unit to aid the search, the case remains a missing person investigation.

Police have also asked for help finding two people, known as Derek and Brittany, who might have been seen with Nemeth shortly before he went missing.

One neighbour who saw the investigators on Friday told CTV it is not unusual to see police cars in the area. She said she was shocked and upset to learn that a house on her street was involved in the case of Nemeth's disappearance, which she has been following.

“To see that it was something to do with someone on our street, so close by, it just made my heart break,” said Debbie Beaucage. "I retweet and share everything that I see that comes across about him.”
 

Family hopes weekend brings break in case

Nemeth’s family hopes a “big push” this weekend will lead to a break in the case of his disappearance.

“This weekend represents our greatest opportunity to search for Cooper. Milder weather and no precipitation will aid us greatly in our search (Saturday),” said a message posted on a website dedicated to the search effort.

Searchers planned to gather at the Gateway Community Centre on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. and continuing throughout the day.

Nemeth is described as six feet tall (183 cm) and weighs around 170 pounds (77 kg). He was last seen wearing his team jacket, with a River East Marauders hockey logo on the front, along with black pants and brown skater runners.

The family has requested that people refrain from wearing Marauders jackets so as not to confuse people during the search.

Searcher Corie Siddle said Nemeth's mother is asking community to keep searching and not lose momentum. Siddle said volunteers are covering areas as far as East St. Paul and Lockport, as well as on snowmobiles in the bush.

Siddle said Nemeth's mom wants people to know hope is alive, and that the homicide unit's involvement is simply about increasing resources.

“It just means more manpower is out there, because they don’t designate as much for missing persons,” said Siddle.

Two Grade 12 students conducted door-to-door searches in Transcona. Neither knew Nemeth personally, but said their friends do.

They said social media has played a large role in the search, and that most people they talk to have heard about Nemeth's story.

"We heard over the Internet, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, you see it everywhere really," said Kira Altomare, a student at Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau. "And it’s just my friends are friends with him so we thought might as well come out, help the community.”

“The amount of people that have come out is just incredible, seeing everyone come together as one family,” she said.
 

Hockey community supports search

A different hockey team played its part to help the Nemeth family Friday night.

The Winnipeg Thrashers faced the Parkland Rangers in the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey league at their home arena, the Gateway Community Centre, which is also the meeting point for volunteers searching for Nemeth.

The team announced it would donate the proceeds of Friday’s 50 50 ticket sales to the Nemeth family.

"We're just a hockey community, and we all used to play hockey with Cooper when we were younger, and we all know him pretty well,” said Brendan Kochanskiof the Winnipeg Thrashers.

“We figured if there's anything we can do, this is the base, this is the hub for all the helping."

The draw raised $1,134.50 for the family. It will cover costs like gas for car searches and printing flyers.