The Maine Warden Service spent all day Friday searching Waterboro for a missing teenage boy but found no clues, the officer heading up the effort said Friday night as most of the search wound down after darkness fell.

“We’ve had no sign of him,” said Lt. Kevin Adam, who noted that he had been up for 36 straight hours trying to find Jaden Dremsa, 15, before getting some rest late Friday.

On Friday, Adam said, 15 wardens and about 80 volunteers trekked through woods and walked country roads looking for Dremsa, who was last seen around 3 p.m. Thursday at the Twin Pines Trailer Park in North Waterboro. He had said he was going out for a walk.

Dremsa is 5-foot-9 and weighs about 140 pounds. He has shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes.

A helicopter from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a warden service plane searched from the air Friday, Adam said. He said ground searchers have intensively gone over an area about a mile out from the trailer park, and some searchers have gone farther looking for Dremsa, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism characterized by difficulty with social interaction and non-verbal communication.

Adam said Dremsa is considered high-functioning but is shy and timid, and he might not respond to his name if called.

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The aerial search was suspended Friday afternoon when rain and low clouds moved in, Adam said. Their use Saturday will depend on the weather, and the forecast calls for rain and drizzle in the morning.

Adam said Dremsa was wearing only jeans and a shirt when he was last seen and there’s concern about exposure because of Friday’s lower temperatures and rain. Adam said he decided to keep search dogs working until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. Saturday because of that concern.

If they haven’t picked up a strong scent by early Saturday, Adam said, the dogs and handlers will rest for a few hours and then resume searching about 7 a.m. Saturday, when wardens and volunteers will also be out looking again.

Adam said wardens are also interviewing residents in the area in the hope of getting more clues to Dremsa’s whereabouts. A roadblock was set up on Route 5 in Waterboro on Friday to find out whether any drivers might have seen something that would help in locating the teenager.

Anyone with information concerning Dremsa is urged to contact the Maine State Police public safety dispatch center in Gray at 657-3030.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com


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