Internet Biggest Tool in Search for Missing Metallica Fan Morgan Harrington

The search for missing Metallica fan Morgan Harrington is nearing the end of its fourth heartbreaking week, and at this point, the parents of the 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, Gil and Dan Harrington, are starting to show their frustrations. This week, in a blog posted to the site FindMorgan.com, the usually soft-spoken mother bares her soul, and her fangs.

"I am starting to get angry," Gil Harrington writes; her daughter hasn't been seen since Metallica's Oct. 17 concert and search efforts have been ongoing ever since Harrington's case first attracted national media. "I am slow to anger, but once it takes hold I am relentless. I will tear apart this world to find Morgan and get this guy. If he manages to hide, he will still reap his punishment in the next [life]. But I am on the move, and I will prevail."

Gil Harrington's blog is yet another tool in the hunt for Morgan, who was last seen in a Pantera shirt, black boots, and a black mini-skirt. The search has been waged online and around the area surrounding the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va., but so far, nothing. And the entire ordeal is taking its toll on the Harringtons.

"Tired, spent, hitting the wall, but still forcing ourselves to go like robots to get out the message of Morgan," Gil's blog reads. "We have lavished love on our kids and each other, kisses in the fog of the shower door, notes in the sock drawer. So glad we didn't waste any of the precious time. Didn't know it would be so short. You catch yourself in moments of despair. Like seeing the snack she likes in the cupboard. But you also catch yourself in moments of joy, like when the dog comes in dressed in his costume. I know we will make it and string these moments of joy and normal together and have a new life. It is difficult though."

Harrington bemoans what the police have been telling her. "How can it be that our best case scenario is that our daughter is being held against her will? Next best is she is dead. Worst is we will never know and agonize forever," Harrington writes. "The bag taped shut of her DNA, hair and toothbrush, in her room is next to her baby trunk ... with the prints of her tiny starfish like feet and yellow paint. How has it happened that we are living this schizophrenic, unbelievable kaleidoscope?"

The blog was unexpected from Harrington, who has been fighting the good fight with her husband for almost a month now. It was also heartrending. But it's a tool, say investigators, in helping bring Morgan home. The Harringtons have been using the Internet as a weapon, to both shape media coverage and assist investigators.

The family's been using online social networking sites and the FindMorgan site to feed the public's hankering for information on the case. There's a Facebook page with close to 30,000 friends, devoted to finding Morgan Harrington; a Flickr page with dozens of photos of Morgan; RSS and Twitter feeds; and YouTube videos related to the missing girl. And according to reports, the online tools have been helping shape the course of the investigation. Many of the volunteers who assisted a three-day search this past weekend for Harrington learned of the search through Twitter.

According to police, the Web has led to leads and angles the police may not have thought of. People, sitting at their computers, discussing the case, and what may have happened. The Virginia State Police have two agents assigned to perusing various sites in search of useful information. One woman, police said, wrote on Facebook that she had seen Harrington at a gas station in Orange County, and police checked into it but found nothing to corroborate the tip. Experts say the Harringtons are re-writing the playbook in missing children.

The Harringtons will be appearing today on 'Dr. Phil,' to bring more awareness to their daughter's case.