COSTA MESA : Banner Used in Search for Woman

A month after a Newport Beach women disappeared off the Corona del Mar Freeway, Costa Mesa police and her family on Tuesday unfurled a large banner they hope will generate information about her whereabouts.

Denise Anette Huber, 23, has been missing since the early morning hours of June 2. Her abandoned car, with one flat tire, was found just south of the Bear Street exit.

Police fear that she may have been kidnaped since they have heard nothing from Huber, described as an extremely conscientious person with no reason to run away from home.

On Tuesday, desperate for information, her family placed a 6-by-30-foot banner on the roof of an apartment building that overlooks the area where her abandoned Honda Accord was discovered.

“We’re installing the banner in hopes that someone will come forward and provide us with a clue, any clue,” said her father, Dennis Huber, as three men tied the banner to the roof. “I need more information. We really have little to go on.”

The banner, which says, “Have You Seen?” also includes Huber’s likeness, a description of her and a phone number for the Costa Mesa Police Department.

Dennis Huber said police and the family have received about 100 tips that have led detectives to every county in Southern California. But Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Ron Smith said nothing substantive has turned up.

“We’re checking out everything,” Smith said, adding that the department has cross-checked other missing person reports filed in other cities. “If anything is remotely close, we get in touch with the other agency and compare notes.”

Two dozen of the tips were generated by a spot on the “America’s Most Wanted” television program two weeks ago. The show is hosted by John Walsh, whose son, Adam Walsh, was kidnaped and killed in the early 1980s.

Lynn Day, director of the Orange County chapter of the Adam Walsh Resource Center, which normally only investigates missing children, said the group is making an exception here.

“She is still their daughter,” Day said. “She is still their child.”

Day said the group is helping the family on an almost daily basis during their ordeal by helping pass along tips.

“We want to take some of the pressure off the family,” said Day, who was present at the unfurling. “We want to find her. We won’t stop until we do.

Denise Huber is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with brown shoulder-length hair. She has blue eyes and a birthmark on her right upper arm.

Anyone with information about her disappearance is urged to call the Costa Mesa Police Department at (714) 754-5363, 754-5364 or 754-5120.