Tex. firm searches Schuylkill for missing woman

By CHRISTINE OLLEY Philadelphia Daily News
olleyc@phillynews.com 215-854-5184
For 21 days now, Toni Lee Sharpless' family has been living in hell.
"We're beside ourselves," said Peter Knebel, Sharpless' stepfather.
She was last reported seen about 3 a.m. Aug. 23 driving her black Pontiac Grand Prix after a night out with a girlfriend at a club in King of Prussia, then at a party in Gladwyne, police said.
Yesterday, Lower Merion police and Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit search-and-recovery firm that Knebel contacted, used special equipment to search for Sharpless' car in the Schuylkill near Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne.
"There's a public dock down that way where a car could possibly be driven into the water," said G.W. Williams, a police corporal with West Brandywine Township, where Sharpless lives.
Williams said the organization brought a piece of equipment called a side-scan sonar that generates an image similar to a black-and-white photograph.
"They found several cars in the river, some of which have been identified as not being hers, and some of which are still being checked," Williams said.
Knebel said that "every day gets more and more agonizing and, realistically, we're convinced she's dead."