Are friends of missing teen helping?

After more than seven hours of searching Saturday, friends of 17-year-old Paige Johnson, who was last seen Sept. 23, met up at the corner of 15th Street and Scott Street in Covington.

"We had a meeting this morning. We all got together about 9 a.m. at Paint Yourself Silly where Paige's mom works. We all just got in the groups and we started in Decoursey. Some people started 12th Street and we just worked our way over to Kellogg Avenue. We searched Wilder, we searched Newport, we searched flood walls, and a group went out to East Fork," said Johnson’s friend Carmen Klein.

There's been an overwhelming effort on social media sights like Facebook to try and piece together what may have happened to Johnson. Those efforts quickly turned to physical searches throughout the tri-state.

Minutes before Friday night's meeting with Johnson's friends and family in Latonia, Covington police told those in the effort to stay away from East Fork Lake.

While the lake is a point of interest, investigators tell 9 News that the friends are not trained to search, therefore their efforts could disturb a search being planned by trained law enforcement.

Klein and her group of friends decided to stay away from the lake however that did not stop others.

Friends say that at the end of the day it's about one common goal.

"We're not going to look at it as she is gone. We're going to keep trying, trying. Try to get her alive. Paige is still alive. We're going to keep going until we get something," Klein said.