An all-day search over a 20-mile area Thursday proved futile for about 25 officers looking for evidence in the homicide of a 15-year-old Vicksburg girl, officials said.

“It’s heart-breaking,” Yazoo County Sheriff Thomas Vaughn said of the search along Mississippi 3, near where the body of Sharonda L. “Na-Na” Brown was found Tuesday morning. “It really is. The people want something done. I want something done. But finding what we’re looking for is kind of a needle-in-a-haystack situation.”

Meanwhile, the man authorities have detained in Yazoo County for questioning in Sharonda’s death remains in custody without being charged.

State law says if he is not charged by about 5 this afternoon, he must be released because he would have been held for the maximum 72 hours.

Officials have not released his name, but the victim’s family has identified him as 46-year-old James Lumpkin of Vicksburg, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1992 and served 10 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections before his release five years ago.

Officers with the Yazoo and Warren County sheriff’s departments and Vicksburg Police combed the area between Redwood and Satartia Thursday, searching for evidence. Sharonda’s body was found near the shoulder of Mississippi 433 in Yazoo County. If traveling from Vicksburg, the driver would have traveled along Mississippi 3 to get to 433.

Despite “fantastic efforts” on the part of the agencies, no clues were found, Vaughn said.

“We searched everything we could,” he said. “Fields, drainage ditches, abandoned barns. We examined old socks or any other clothing we found along the road, but there was nothing there to help us in the case.”

Vaughn said a car mat smeared with a red substance was found, bringing a brief glint of hope, but it was determined not to be blood.

“It just gnaws at my gut,” he said. “We’re doing everything we absolutely can.”

Authorities said they are also awaiting final autopsy results from Dr. Steven Hayne with Mississippi State Crime Lab before charges are filed. In addition, they said not knowing exactly where the homicide took place has delayed the case.

Sharonda’s family reported her missing late Sunday night, more than 24 hours after they had last seen her with Lumpkin, who is the father of one of Sharonda’s half-sisters.

Her 20-year-old sister, Aleisha Brown, said Lumpkin picked up Sharonda and some of her sisters at the City Pool Saturday afternoon, then dropped off all but Sharonda. The family lives at 2228 Grove St.

“There’s no doubt he did it. He’s killed before,” Aleisha Brown said.

Sharonda, a student at Warren Central Junior High, was to be buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery this afternoon following a service at W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home.