Journal photo / Mary Murphy
Authorities had been looking for 11-year-old Shai Ramsdell, inset, since last night. Above, they gathered this morning off Montgomery Avenue in Cranston, where she lives.

Late this afternoon, her mother and stepfather appealed to the community to help find their daughter during an afternoon press conference that offered no new clues as to the girl's whereabouts.

Lydia and Clifton Choiniere appeared at the press conference called by Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey.

Early this afternoon, authorities sent out a recorded phone message to 30,000 households in Providence, Cranston and Warwick, expanding outreach efforts to all homes within a 5-mile radius in the search for Shai.

At the request of local police, the Florida-based organization A Child is Missing coordinated the mass distribution of the message, which details Shai’s physical description down to the color of her sneakers and backpack, and a wart above her right eye.

Volunteers were also helping to distribute leaflets with Shai's photo on them.

Shai was described as black, with brown hair and eyes, about 5 feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds. She was last seen wearing blue denim shorts and a blue shirt.

The same message was distributed last night at 8 p.m. to about 2,000 households within a 2-mile radius of her home on Montgomery Avenue in Cranston, on the Providence line.

The message urged people to go outside and check around their yards or housing complexes for signs of the young girl.

Shai was reported missing by her family early last evening. She was last seen just before leaving her home at 270 Montgomery Ave. around 7:30 yesterday morning. She never arrived at Park View Middle School.

--With reports from projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson