CONWAY, N.H.

Mother of missing teenager confident she will return

The mother of a 15-year-old North Conway girl who vanished last month on her way home from high school says she believes her daughter will come home someday.

Abigail Hernandez was last seen Oct. 9, after leaving Kennett High School. Police say she walked her normal route toward home and sent several texts between 2:30 and 3 p.m., but never made it home.

At a news conference Friday, Zenya Hernandez said that in a dream she had Abigail comes home, and she believes the dream “matters.”

She is urging her daughter to be strong.

Tips continue to come into the FBI hotline: 1-800-CALL FBI.

CONCORD, N.H.

Letter by astronaut Grissom in 1961 fails to sell at auction

A letter written by astronaut Gus Grissom that exposes resentment over the pick of John Glenn as the first American to orbit the Earth has failed to sell at auction.

The October 1961 letter to his mother had a high bid of $13,155 in the online sale run by RR Auction of Amherst, N.H. Before the auction ended Thursday, company officials estimated it could bring $80,000. A spokesman said Friday the letter was withdrawn because the minimum price was not offered.

In the letter, Grissom divulges the flight crew for the first orbital mission. He writes: “All of us are mad because Glenn was picked.”

Grissom died in 1967 with two other astronauts in a launch pad fire while preparing for a mission.

DURHAM, N.H.

Termination of professor overturned by arbitrator

An independent arbitrator overturned the termination of a University of New Hampshire associate professor.

In May, UNH said Marco Dorfsman, who teaches Spanish, admitted to intentionally lowering the student evaluations of another faculty member.

The matter went to the arbitrator, Gary Altman, who overturned it but recommended that Dorfsman be disciplined.

Foster’s Daily Democrat reported that Altman returned the decision to the union and UNH to work out.

– From news service reports