It's been nearly three days now, but Marshall refuses to give up hope.

"I think she's alive," she told AFP. "I'm hoping she's with her grandparents because they're missing too."

Marshall's brother discovered the bodies of his wife and six-year-old daughter in the wreckage Monday. He eventually found out his two-year-old daughter had been taken to a St. Louis hospital in critical condition.

But little Kaitlin and her grandparents were nowhere to be found.

While rescue crews comb through the rubble for survivors and bodies after the deadliest tornado in 60 years struck Joplin, desperate people are searching shelters and hospitals for 1,500 missing loved ones.

Officials caution that many may simply have failed to check in with relatives or friends in the chaos following the storm which knocked out phone lines and destroyed 8,000 buildings.

They have urged residents to check in with a local hotline.

But since they have not yet released the names of the 125 people killed by the storm -- or the 750 taken to area hospitals -- it has been extremely difficult for people to discover the fate of their friends, relatives and neighbors.

Heart-breaking stories were being replayed on the local radio and on social networking sites as people searched for their loved ones, including panicked parents separated from their children.

The family of 16-month-old Skyular Logsdon have launched an anxious search using the social network Facebook for the baby boy ripped from his mother's arms by the powerful winds.

"No, he has not been found," his grandmother, Milissa Burns, posted sadly on the site Wednesday. "I'm following all leads both good and bad. I will let u all know as soon as we know something either way... I just pray we all can work together on this. God bless."

Teenager Lantz Hare is also missing since being out in a car with friends when the massive funnel cloud, with winds of up to 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour, hit Joplin with devastating force.

"He was on the phone with another friend, we believe, when the tornado actually hit the car. His friend Ryan says he could literally hear the swoosh came through and the phone went dead," his mother Michelle told CNN.

The family of Will Norton -- who flew out of his father's Hummer while they were driving home from high school graduation - has also turned to Facebook.

"We think he might still be out there waiting to be found," Norton's aunt Tracey posted on the site. But the family has checked every hospital in the area and "is having a tough time with the leads not panning out," she said.

The American Red Cross has set up a website for people to list the names of the missing, and to report if they are safe and well, but they have had little success reuniting families.

"It's been very difficult. We'd like to see a much greater number of families reunited," said Bill Benson, who is handling the Red Cross's social media and online outreach.

"We have a constant influx of folks coming in desperate asking can you help me -- we just don't know where to go and we're looking for our loved ones."

One resident is trying to aggregate a list of the missing and facilitate reunions on a Facebook page called Joplin's Loved Ones that is filled with desperate pleas for help.

"15 and 13 Yrs old daughters waiting to hear of mothers whereabouts," Terri Galcatcher posted Wednesday.

"Please help us find Tonja "Toni" Sawyer. She is from Fort Scott KS, and Last Known location was Walmart at Range Line Rd."

A woman named Debbie Miller begged for help finding her father, George Stinnett.

"He's in his 70's. Im in California and too sick to get out there to help look. I beg of you or anyone, please drive out there and look to see if he is trapped! Please, someone?" she wrote.

There was good news, however.

"Found: Frank and Gwenn Todd," wrote Lorri LaBelle Collett. "Home is gone, but they are alive. Thank you to the women who called my mother to let her know. Praying for all those still looking."

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