WALNUT CREEK -- A mother from Oklahoma spent the day in the East Bay, looking for her son, Matthew Wilson.

The Texas-college student has been missing for several months and his mother Cathy Wilson is hoping strangers will help find him. There have been three sightings of a man who matches Wilson’s description in Walnut Creek and several sightings in Berkeley -- all encouraging news to his mother who is determined to find her 20-year-old son.

Wilson, on full scholarship at Rice University, was just days away from completing his junior year when he disappeared.

“We was hoping that Matthew would turn in his finals but he never did and nobody ever saw a trace of him since, until they found the car,” said Cathy Wilson

Wilson's 2004 dodge neon was found June 10th on Allston way in Berkeley. Police found literature inside on how to live cheaply in San Francisco and how to assume a new identity.

Saturday Cathy began her search at people's park in Berkeley, aided by Bridget Melson and volunteers from Trinity Search and Rescue of Pleasanton.

“In Berkeley we've heard two or three people who've said they've seen him,” said Melson.

Wilson had applied to UC Berkeley years ago but, beyond that, there is no apparently link between the missing man and the Bay Area. Still, Melson is encouraged by potential sightings that suggests Wilson is still here.

“I don't always in these cases, or at all, but I do feel like we're going to find Matt,” said Melson.

The search will continue tomorrow and Trinity Search and Recovery is calling for volunteers.