SAN ANTONIO -- About 60 volunteers battled hot temperatures and thick brush Tuesday in hopes of locating a missing 12-year-old girl on the South Side.

Members of the Heidi Search Center joined family members and neighbors to search a dense, wooded area while a San Antonio Police Department helicopter provided aerial support behind a South Side Independent School District school in search of Rosa Sandoval.

The fifth-grader from Sky Harbor Elementary was last seen Friday going to the campus in the 5900 block of Fisher's Bend.

Missing: Rosa Sandoval If seen, please call: SAPD Missing Persons Unit (210) 207-7660 Heidi Search Center (210) 650-0428

Pedro Sandoval, the girl's father, pleaded to the public for his daughter's safe return.

"Please, have a heart ... return my daughter," Pedro Sandoval, said, through an interpreter.

Sandoval said he hasn't been able to eat or sleep since his daughter's disappearance and added his wife is so worried, she can't even leave their home.

"I feel (like) she was abducted," said Ysela Hernandez, the girl's homeroom teacher. "I hope they return her because she needs to go home. This needs to have a happy ending for all of us."

While the girl's father, Hernandez and some members of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens feel the 12-year-old was abducted, police have yet to issue an Amber Alert in the case. An Amber Alert is an emergency notification issued by police when they fear a child has been abducted. San Antonio police officials said at this point they don't have any evidence of an abduction, although they continue to investigate.