LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) – Seven weeks after a 13-year-old Derry girl apparently ran away from her father’s home in Londonderry, her family is getting frustrated with limits on the police’s ability to search for her.

Alisha McEwen, an eighth-grader, has been missing since Dec. 11 and her family suspects she ran away with her 15-year-old boyfriend, Paul Szalay Jr. of San Antonio, Texas.

Szalay, who used to live in Derry, is listed as missing by police in San Antonio.

McEwen’s family is offering a reward of $2,000 and has posted countless missing posters. They also have set up a Web site at MySpace.com seeking help in locating her.

McEwen’s aunt said the family has had a hard time getting police to follow up on leads they have generated.

Londonderry Police Capt. William Hart said there are limits to what police can do when children run away, because no crime has been committed.

For example, police cannot get search warrants, as they could in a kidnapping, he said.

“A 13-year-old runaway child is obviously a source of deep concern,” Hart said. “But with that said, there are limited avenues which one can pursue in that investigation.”

McEwen’s father, Shane McCarthy, said that several days after his daughter disappeared, he staked out an apartment building in Derry where he thought she might be staying. He thought he saw her and police knocked on doors, but got no useful information. Without suspicion of a crime, they could not do much else, he said.

“They can’t just go kicking down doors because we think she’s there,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said he wishes police could have issued an “Amber Alert” to trigger an intense search for his daughter.

“Next time my daughter goes missing, I’m going to say she was walking down the street and just disappeared,” he said.

Hart said parents should be truthful with police when they suspect a child has run away. Children who leave home voluntarily often do not want to return, he said.

Sociology professor David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes against Children Research Center, agreed.

“Running away is something that law enforcement is reluctant to be aggressive about because they know bringing the child back will oftentimes not resolve the situation,” Finkelhor said. “It just results in the child leaving again.”

Deborah Brady, a senior case manager with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said police tend to respond more forcefully to “critical cases,” such as first-time runaways, children under 12 and children on the run with a sexual predator.

Maureen Blaha, executive director for the National Runaway Switchboard, a hot line for children, said not all police understand they should take a missing person report immediately when a child runs away, even if the child has run away before and returned.

“It is important to treat every case seriously because this could be the run that lasts for months and months,” she said.

Both Brady and Blaha said media campaigns and pressure from friends often lead runaway children to contact their families.

“More than anything they say, I didn’t think you cared.’ A 13-year-old doesn’t think about the pain they are causing. They don’t think it matters to the parent if they are gone,” Brady said.

Londonderry Police are asking anyone with information about McEwen to contact them.

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Information from: New Hampshire Union Leader, http://www.unionleader.com