Amber Alert issued for missing Braintree girl
12-year-old Brooke Bennett last seen 9 a.m. Wednesday
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Police search in Brookfield for missing 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, where an article of her clothing was found. AP Photo/Toby Talbot |
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Published: June 27, 2008
BROOKFIELD - Vermont State Police issued this state's first Amber Alert on Thursday afternoon as they searched for a missing 12-year-old girl from Braintree.
Brooke Bennett was last seen at 9 a.m. on Wednesday when her uncle dropped her off at a Cumberland Farms in Randolph. At 9 p.m. that night her grandmother reported her missing to the State Police barracks in Rockingham. After searching throughout the day Thursday, police issued an Amber Alert, a national all-points bulletin for a missing child, around 5:15 p.m.
Bennett is 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 98 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes and she was last seen wearing a pink sweater, blue jeans and a pair of white sneakers with pink lettering. Her hair has purple streaks and both of her ears are pierced on the top and bottom.
Bennett, who recently completed the seventh grade at Randolph High School, had told family members she was meeting a friend at the convenience store. She said the two were then going to visit the friend's ill relative at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
Bennett had spent the previous night at her uncle's house, and when he dropped her off, a cousin was also in the vehicle. Video surveillance at the store shows Bennett being dropped off and then walking away from the store towards Randolph.
After interviews with family and friends, police believe the story of meeting a friend and traveling to the Hanover, N.H., medical center was a ruse, reported Capt. David Covell, the D-Troop Commander during an afternoon press conference in Brookfield at the elementary school.
Police have evidence that Bennett may have agreed to meet someone with whom she had been communicating through the computer social network MySpace. As part of their investigation, police are searching Bennett's computer for more information. They would not confirm whether the correspondent was a male or female.
"It is certainly our hope that Ms. Bennett is out there and has just failed to contact family and friends," said Covell during the press conference.
In an interview with the Associated Press, her father said his daughter established her first MySpace account under his supervision, but he later pulled the plug on it a couple of months ago after they learned about some of her activity on it, according James Bennett, 41, of Bethel.
"We told her when we set it up there that's things you're not gonna' do," he said. "We had a little respect problem after a month or so, so we shut it off. There was an issue, and we decided it was not appropriate for her to have it. We changed the password so she couldn't use it," he said.
She later set up an account from another computer, which Bennett said he didn't know until a week ago. The girl lives with her mother in Braintree, not with Bennett.
State police late Thursday evening said some 30 law enforcement officials had been marshaled for the search and would follow leads throughout the night. State police Sgt,. Tara Thomas said the FBI had also become involved in the case.
Family members were out searching for Bennett early in the morning and one member found an item of clothing on the side of Route 65 in Brookfield, police reported. They would not confirm what the item of clothing was, only that is was something Bennett was last seen wearing. Forensic evidence garnered from the clothing was what prompted police to issue the Amber Alert and led to the search in the rural town.
That Amber Alert was posted on the top of MySpace pages for members throughout Vermont on Thursday.
As far as officials attending the afternoon the briefing could determine, it was the first time the Amber Alert measure had been taken in the state. When asked why it was not issued until almost 24 hours after the girl was reported missing, police officials said certain criteria must be met in order to issue such an alert.
The search in Brookfield included the use of a K-9 Unit. Members of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, troopers from the Royalton barracks and detectives from throughout the state responded to the area to assist. The State Police Crime Scene Search Team processed the area on Route 65 where the clothing was found.
The area was also searched by the State Police Search and Rescue Team, but results were negative. Police reported they will implement a dive team in Sunset Lake early today if there are no new developments in the case.
At least 14 detectives were out searching the Brookfield area. A few were seen talking to motorists in the neighborhood of Brookfield's famed floating bridge on Route 65. By early evening local police, friends and family had scattered fliers throughout the region of Randolph, Brookfield, Braintree and beyond.