HOUSTON -- Family, friends, and volunteers aided Houston police in their search Tuesday for a missing 13-year-old girl.

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Volunteers with the Laura Recover Center Foundation and Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team continued their search Tuesday near the gas station where Laura Ayala was last seen.

A command post has been set up at the Conoco station, 2610 Broadway, in southeast Houston.

Searchers said that time is running out and that they need to find Ayala soon.

Ayala's family said that they are hopeful that she will be found.

"I have a good feeling that she's good, and nothing bad is going to happen to her," Ayala's aunt Suzie Rebollar said.

Ayala left her home at around 10:15 p.m. Sunday to buy a Sunday newspaper at the gas station.

Ayala had asked her mother for some money to buy the paper for a school assignment that was to be completed during spring break, authorities said.

The store clerk confirmed to police that Ayala bought the paper.

While family members were searching for Ayala, they found her shoes and the paper scattered on the route to the store, authorities said.

Investigators said that the fact that Ayala's shoes were found makes the incident very suspicious, and that they believe she may have been abducted.

Police described Ayala as a Hispanic female, about 4 feet tall, and weighing about 90 pounds. She has black, medium-length straight hair with brown highlights.

Ayala was last seen wearing a blue and white checkered dress.

Investigators said that they are also looking for a possible suspect, driving a rusty-colored, or red or maroon type cargo van that has back windows, but may not have side windows, and with a gray bumper.

Police also said they will be interviewing the 30 registered sex offenders, who live within a two-mile radius of Ayala's home, located at 7939 Serita, in southeast Houston.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Houston Police Department at (713) 308-3600.