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Nearly Three Weeks Later Search For Missing Teen Avonte Oquendo Continues

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- It has been nearly three weeks since anybody has seen missing Queens teenager Avonte Oquendo.

Avonte is 5-foot-3 and weighs 125 pounds. The autistic teen was last seen wearing a gray striped shirt, black jeans and black shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS, visit the Crime Stoppers website or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and enter TIP577.

Volunteers, family members, and authorities have spent the weeks since Avonte's disappearance combing the city looking for the boy.

Authorities have reached out to jurisdictions around the region as the search for Avonte continues, 1010 WINS reported.

"We are continuing to put information out. We're talking to jurisdictions in the Northeast quadrant of the United States," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Thursday night.

As Oquendo remains missing authorities have become less hopeful that he will be found alive, Kelly added.

Portions of the search for Avonte have focused on train stations. In the past when Avonte has wandered off he has been found at subway stations in Queens.

Avonte was last spotted on surveillance video leaving the Center Boulevard School in Long Island City, Queens on Oct. 4.

A $70,000 reward is being offered by the group Autism Speaks for information about his whereabouts. In all, the reward is up to about $85,000.

Since his disappearance, police, relatives and volunteers have blanketed the city with fliers and have combed through train stations, subway lines, and waterways. The nonverbal boy loves trains, according to authorities.

New York City subway riders have seen fliers taped to station support columns, and heard announcements from train conductors urging them to keep their eyes open.

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