Seven years after the disappearance of Damien Sharp, Warren City police have an active file and still receive tips and leads.

"We're still investigating it," Investigator Anthony Chimenti said Tuesday. "We've come up with some leads and we're following them."

Closing the case without finding Sharp is not an option. A missing person case remains open until the person is found, he said.

Chimenti, who was formally assigned to the case in May, said he has been "going into and following up on all the leads, every time a lead comes up."

The seven years since Sharp's disappearance do not phase Chimenti.

"Sure we like to have (information) right away when the thing happens," he said. "On any case, things don't go away. People change their minds. Memories get jogged."

He's looking for help.

"We're hoping now that they know we're following up leads, they'd call in and help us out - any help that anybody can give us," Chimenti said. "We're pursuing it. We want to solve it. We want to bring the individual home to his family."

"That's what we're trying to get is closure," Chimenti said. "His mother has been through a lot. We want to provide her with that closure."

The time has allowed for advancements in the use of DNA as an investigative tool. "When this first started, I don't believe the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) system was fully in place," Chimenti said. Technology "always gets better, it helps."

The police department is not closing any doors.

"We're working it as a missing person and as a homicide," Chimenti said.

Information from early in the investigation led police to believe the case to be a murder, but they can't be sure.

He said people are more likely to come across some kind of physical evidence now that the weather is breaking. "Maybe things will turn around" in the case, Chimenti said.

Sharp was carrying a black backpack and using aluminum crutches when he was last seen in Warren on May 25, 2002. He was wearing a dark shirt and dark shorts. He is described as blond, with hazel-blue eyes, 5-foot-7, 170 pounds, and has an Egyptian symbol - an ankh - tattooed on his chest.

Warren County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information that leads to the location of Sharp.

Chimenti asks that anyone with any information on the case contact him at 723-2700 or 406-7389, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-83-CRIME.