A Maine teenager mysteriously disappeared more than a month ago after she was last seen leaving her home in New Sweden and walking into the nearby woods.
Stefanie Damron, 14, was last seen on Sept. 23 “leaving her home toward the woods on West Road in New Sweden,” police said. Maine State Police Department he said in a statement.
His family, who locals say has not joined the search efforts, reported him missing the next day, September 24.
After nearly a month of “extensive” efforts by Maine State Police and the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Response Team, an Oct. 23 report revealed the girl remains missing.
State police added that all available resources have been used to find the missing girl, including collaborations with the state Computer Crimes Unit and the FBI.
Stefanie Damron, 14, was last seen on Sept. 23 “leaving her home into the woods located on West Road in New Sweden,” the Maine State Police Department said.
After nearly a month of “extensive” efforts by Maine State Police and the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Response Team, an Oct. 23 report revealed the girl remains missing.
Pictured: New Sweden, Maine, where Stephanie disappeared.
The ongoing search efforts for the missing girl have also inspired locals of the small town and those in the surrounding areas to band together and search for anything that may lead them to the missing teenager.
Despite community pressure to find the girl, searchers say the Damron family has refused to get involved.
“We’re not going to stop until we find her,” said Whittni Nichols, who helped lead the citizen search groups.
The disappearance comes years after the Damron family moved to New Sweden from Texas after what one member called a “CPS fiasco.”
Stefanie’s father, Christopher Dale Michael Damron, said in a 2019 report. post on facebook that the family would “head to Maine away from these bad memories.”
While the family lived in Rusk, Texas, Stefanie’s parents were arrested after officers found them allegedly intoxicated inside a McDonald’s while two of their children were in the car, according to a police report obtained by DailyMail.com.
The children involved were not identified.
After the incident, Stephanie’s mother, Lisa Marie Damron, was initially charged with abandoning a child with intent to return, but later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of deadly conduct and received a deferred sentence.
In a post following Stephanie’s disappearance, Lisa Marie claimed that “Stefanie got into an argument with her sister” while her parents were away and she “left.”
The continued search efforts for the missing girl have inspired people in and around the small town to band together and search for anything that could lead them to the missing teenager. Searchers say the Damron family has refused to get involved, but their group wants to do everything they can to bring the girl home safely.
In a post following Stephanie’s disappearance, Lisa Marie claimed that “Stefanie got into an argument with her sister” while her parents were away and she “left.”
“We live half a mile in the woods and our children feel very comfortable in their surroundings, so there was nothing that raised alarms during the first few hours,” added Lisa Marie, concluding the note by saying “we just want our baby at home.” .
The search continues as “investigators have conducted numerous interviews and followed leads in Maine, nationally and in Canada,” police wrote in a statement.
“The Maine Warden Service and the Maine State Police K9 Unit have searched large tracts of land near Stefanie’s last known location.”
New Sweden is located in Aroostook County, about 200 miles from the Canadian border, and has a population of just over 500.
Stephanie, who was 13 at the time of her disappearance but has since turned 14, is 5 feet tall, weighs 130 pounds, has green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair.
She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue long-sleeved shirt and black Harley Davidson hiking boots, according to Maine State Police.
Maine Police ask that anyone with information about Stefanie’s whereabouts contact Maine State Police at 1-800-924-2261 or 207-532-5400.