A vigil was held Saturday for a northern Maine teen who has been missing just shy of three months, and whose disappearance has attracted international media attention.
Stefanie Damron, 14, of New Sweden, Maine, was reported missing by her family on Sept. 24, a day after the then-13-year-old was last seen walking out of her house and into the nearby woods on West Road. She has not been found despite extensive searches and interviews, authorities have said.
"Stefanie's family is very concerned for her safety, as are we," Maine State Police Major Scott Gosselin said at a press conference on Dec. 2. "At this time, there's been no credible information or sightings of Stefanie."
Stefanie, who is homeschooled and has limited access to social media, is 5 feet tall, 130 lbs. and has green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. She was last seen in blue jeans, a blue shirt with long sleeves and black Harley Davidson hiking boots.
Family, friends and community members gathered Saturday at the New Sweden First Baptist Church to share her story and to hold a moment of silence, according to NBC10 Boston affiliate News Center Maine.
State police, in conjunction with the FBI, have been searching for Stefanie across the U.S. and in Canada, including using police dogs to search large swaths of land in Aroostook County near where she was last seen. They said they have conducted countless interviews and spent hundreds of hours investigating her disappearance, and yet they have no credible information or sightings of Stefanie.
The FBI said earlier this month that it is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to Stefanie's safe return or the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in her disappearance. The FBI, collaborating with Maine State Police, said it's hopeful the reward will incentivize anyone with information regarding the teen's disappearance.
“Stefanie’s family desperately wants to know where she is," Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said at the Dec. 2 presser. "We are fully committed to helping our law enforcement partners exhaust every investigative resource to find her and bring her home.”
Maine State Police have said this type of behavior has not been uncommon for Stefanie, which is why her family waited a little bit of time before calling police immediately. She's usually not gone long, however, so given that she hasn't returned home, officials have slowly ratcheted up their investigative resources.
Investigators said in early December that everything is still on the table, that nothing has led them in one specific direction so far.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has also been notified, which is standard procedure whenever a minor goes missing or there could be an issue in the home, police said without elaborating on the agency's involvement.
New Sweden is a rural community of about 575 people located 310 miles north of Portland.
Stefanie’s disappearance has attracted media attention from as far away as Europe. Tips have come in regarding the case from other states and Canada, and authorities are following up on those, police said. However, police have yet to receive any concrete leads, they said.
"We are looking for help from the public in order to maintain a vigilance for Stefanie and to report any tips or leads that might be helpful to our investigation,” Gosselin said.
"Any detail, no matter how small, could be helpful," Kim Melka, FBI Boston's assistant special agent in charge, said at the FBI's press conference on Dec. 2. "Rest assured we are working to find out what happened to Stefanie and reunite her with her family."
Anyone with information about Stefanie's whereabouts is urged to immediately call Maine State Police at 1-800-924-2261 or 207-532-5400. Tips can also be called in to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.
More on Stefanie Damron
The Associated Press contributed to this report
