STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. – The FBI has deployed a child abduction team in the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl from her house in a tiny town just a mile from the Canadian border.
The disappearance of Celina Cass has rattled nerves in Stewartstown, a community of 800 residents with one blinking streetlight and a handful of stores.
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Celina was last seen in her house at a computer Monday night and was gone the next morning, authorities said. Police have said that there’s no indication she ran away or that someone took her, and there are no signs of a struggle.
On Wednesday, the FBI joined the investigation into Celina’s disappearance and prosecutors from the attorney general’s office arrived in Stewartstown and took charge of it. The FBI team specializes in child abductions, but the disappearance was still being treated as a missing-person case.
The specter of the girl’s disappearance hung heavy over Stewartstown.
“It’s creepy,” said Shannon Towles, who owns Towles Mini-Mart on Route 3. “Things like this don’t happen here. I know that’s kind of a tired phrase. I’m an overprotective mom as it is. Now it’s going to be way worse.”
Celina’s stepfather, Wendell Noyes, described her as a quiet girl who would not have left home on her own. He declined to comment further on her disappearance.
Residents described Celina as a sweet, friendly child. One of Celina’s best friends, 11-year-old Makayla Riendeau, said Celina loves her mother and likes her stepfather and wouldn’t run away. She said Celina is very athletic, is a stickler about getting her schoolwork done on time and loves having friends over to her house.
“She’s a very good friend, and she never lets anybody down,” Makayla said.
At midday Wednesday, about a mile north of town, five Fish and Game Department officers searched the woods behind an apartment. They carried bags and boxes, but it was unclear if they collected anything.
On Tuesday, state and federal law enforcement officials scoured the area within a half-mile of the family home, and relatives, friends and neighbors held a vigil for Celina near the house that night.
On Wednesday, crews searched the nearby Connecticut River and cordoned the girl’s house with police tape. Police descended on a parked pickup truck across the street from girl’s home, and officers wearing gloves examined it.
Still, Celina’s disappearance did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert and wasn’t considered suspicious, state police Sgt. Sheldon Belanger said. Police were going through phone and computer records at Celina’s home, he said.
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