SMITHFIELD - A small band of mothers handed out fliers across town Monday as helicopters and rescue teams continued to comb the area where a 3-year-old boy disappeared Sunday afternoon.

Still, the search of the Neuse River and wooded areas in a 1.5-mile radius of the Brightleaf Flea Market yielded no sign of Siraj Munir Davenport, known as Raji, authorities said. The boy's mother, Rosnah Hassan Thomason, 41, called police to report that she was loading her purchases in her vehicle Sunday morning when she discovered her son was missing.

"I don't know what's worse," said Bridgette Olive, a former preschool teacher of the boy. "The mother being interrogated by the police or the father flying halfway around the world and wondering, 'Where is my son?' "

David Davenport, a zoologist with a degree from N.C. State University, is president of EcoQuest Travel of Minneapolis. With a background in reptiles, amphibians, birds and coral reef fish, he leads wildlife tours around the world. Davenport left Raleigh-Durham International Airport about a week ago with an entourage of about seven students and two professors to visit Vietnam, neighbors said.

Smithfield Police Chief Steve Gillikin said police were continuing to look at the case from every angle, including a possible abduction or some other kind of disappearance.

Investigators so far have been unable to find any witnesses who recall seeing Raji or his mother at the flea market before the child went missing, Gillikin said. On Monday, police spent several hours interviewing Thomason.

Tammy Locklear, 38, a co-worker of Thomason's at Angel Home Health Care, said she thinks it most likely the boy was abducted. Raji was not the type of boy to wander off on his own, she said. "Even when we went to the movies, he would hold onto his mother's pocketbook," she said. "He asks his mother before he does anything."

Locklear said that Thomason and some friends had planned a cookout Sunday night and that Thomason had gone to the flea market to pick up supplies.

She had just bought some mangos and papayas when she turned around and discovered her son was gone, neighbors said.

Raji's disappearance has stirred an outpouring from the community. Some of the women who passed out fliers Monday did not know Thomason or Raji personally.

Wendy Ivey, 48, who took off work to go door to door, said she can relate to the anguish the parents must feel. Her toddler son wandered off for about two hours once.

"It is like somebody has torn your heart out when you don't know where your children are," Ivey said.

The disappearance also hit home for Caren Wharton 34, a mother of four, who -- children in tow -- handed out fliers at Carolina Premium Outlets and Wal-Mart. One of her children is of similar age, and the popular flea market is a place her family frequents on weekends.

"I'd want everyone looking for my son if it was me," she said.

Employees from two day-care centers that Raji attended also organized a candlelight vigil Monday night, attended by about 200 people near a pavilion at Barbour's Grove Park in Four Oaks, praying for Raji's safe return. Some wore T-shirts with photos of the boy, a big smile adorning his face, taped on them.

Olive, who teaches at Kids Kampus day care, recalled Raji as a happy boy. He dressed up as Batman for Halloween and wowed classmates by teaching them phrases in Malay, such as "I love you," she said.

And she remembered Davenport on his first visit to the day care. He came with two pages of a legal pad filled with questions, she said.

"He was looking for a place where his child would be protected ... safe," Olive said.

Davenport and Thomason are not married, authorities said. Although Raji's last name is Davenport, police said, they are not sure Davenport is the biological father. Davenport has lived off Go Cart Road in Four Oaks for about seven years, neighbors said. Thomason and Raji joined Davenport in Four Oaks in August.

(Staff writer Marlon A. Walker and researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)