Missing Since Friday : Friends Search for El Cajon Man

Prayer was in the air in an El Cajon neighborhood Sunday as friends of Mark S. Grauer combed the city for clues to the missing man’s whereabouts and hoped that their worst fears would not come true.

Grauer, a 29-year-old construction worker, left home around 5 p.m. Friday to cash his paycheck at a nearby bank but he never returned, his wife Pam said.

Worried and unwilling to wait 72 hours until police would classify him as a missing person, two family friends started looking for Grauer and found his car in the bank parking lot several hours later, his wife said.

“His keys were inside the car on the floorboard, and the car was unlocked,” she said. “He would never leave the car unlocked, for any reason.”

By Sunday, more than 100 people from the family’s church, Skyline Wesleyan in Lemon Grove, had taken photocopied pictures and maps and fanned out through the area to try to find him, Pam Grauer said.

“At this point they’re looking for any kind of clues--trying to find his wallet in a dumpster, looking for any clue they can find,” she said.

As the search continues, she said, she and her daughters, 6 and 3 years old, are scared.

“They do OK until it’s time to go to bed, and then they just want their dad,” she said. “They say, ‘My daddy’s lost,’ and ‘Somebody stole my daddy.’ ”

Police describe Mark Grauer as white, 5-foot-8, and 135 pounds. He has brown eyes and brown, straight, collar-length hair. His car was found in the parking lot at First Interstate Bank, 475 Fletcher Parkway.

Anyone who saw Grauer on Friday or who has information relating to the case is asked to call El Cajon police.