Search for missing 12-year-old continues
Updated 5:01 p.m.
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Volunteer searchers check with a sheriffs deputy in Brookfield, Vt., Friday, June 27, 2008. Vermont State Police divers planned to take to the water Friday in the search for a 12-year-old girl whose disappearance prompted the state's first-ever Amber Alert. The girl was reported missing around 9 p.m. Wednesday after being dropped off at a convenience store in Randolph, where she'd said she was going to meet a friend. Police now believe that was a ruse, though, and suspect she may have been going to meet someone with whom she'd communicated with online.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot) AP |
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Staff Report - Published: June 27, 2008
BETHEL -- James Baker, Director of the Vermont State Police, said this afternoon that divers did not locate the body of missing 12-year-old Brooke Bennett today, and the search for the Braintree youth continues.
Although Baker stopped short of calling the case an 'abduction,' he said authorities are "gravely concerned" for Bennett's well being.
According to Baker, the dive team completed the search of an area of Sunset Lake near the Floating Bridge in Brookfield that was of interest, primarily because an article of Bennett's clothing was found near that site.
He said police had hoped to conduct an aerial search for the girl this afternoon but were forced to cancel that plan because of weather issues. Instead, a limited aerial search of the Sunset Lake area and Route 65, which includes the Floating Bridge, was conducted.
Baker said the FBI has joined the investigation, and 30 detectives are involved in the case. In addition, he said the National Center for Exploited Children was contacted and will post information on the case nationwide in hopes of a lead developing.
Vermont police distributed a videotape from the surveillance tape at the Cumberland Farms store where Bennett was dropped off by her uncle on Wednesday morning. There are two people in the video who have not been identified and police are hoping they will come forward and provide information.They are also asking anyone who saw Bennett on Wednesday morning in Randolph Village -- most likely between 9 and 11 a.m. -- to come forward, even if they feel their information is not important.
He also continued to call Bennett's disappearance a "MySpace Case," believing that she planned to meet someone she met on the social networking site. Detectives are working with computer experts in Burlington to track the computer records that might lead to a suspect.
The Times Argus and Rutland Herald will continue to report on this case.