Every morning, Wesley and Cynthia Wiese light a candle and say a prayer for their daughter, Coreen Wiese, whose disappearance has confounded local police and the FBI.
Tuesday will mark six months since the 15-year-old Bonny Eagle High School student disappeared under mysterious circumstances. She was last seen near the Route 25 bridge on Nov. 8. Her iPod and cell phone were found underneath a nearby bridge over the Saco River, with a cryptic message written on one of the beams, “11/8/06 RIP CW.”
When Wiese didn’t arrive home on the late bus from school that day at 4:45 p.m., her mother tried calling her daughter and then her friends. When she couldn’t find her, she reported her missing to police.
Despite the efforts of local, state and federal investigators, Coreen Wiese remains missing, leaving those who knew her and others in Buxton to wonder what happened to the young girl whose face has now become so familiar through its appearance on missing posters and television news reports.
Wesley Wiese, who installs and maintains high-tech lab equipment in hospitals and doctors’ offices, was in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island on business that day. After calling his wife and learning Coreen was missing, he arrived home at midnight.
He hasn’t returned to work since. “My only purpose in life is to find my daughter,” he said.
In the days after her disappearance, police talked to friends, family, school officials and anyone in this small town who might hold some clue to her whereabouts. The Maine Warden Service scoured the Saco River by foot, boat and by plane in an attempt to locate her.
A week later, the FBI joined the hunt, turning the Buxton Town Hall into a command post and setting up a tip line. More than a dozen agents swept into town to gather evidence.
“It’s unreal,” said Tina Irish, a clerk at the Buxton Mini Mart in Groveville, where Wiese’s disappearance has been a frequent topic of conversation. “It happened so close to home. Without a trace – nothing.”
‘A nice girl’
Coreen Wiese was an honor student and athlete. She wanted to be a lawyer or a writer. Cynthia Wiese said her daughter was interested in boys, but wasn’t seeing anyone steady. She had plans to see her girlfriends that November weekend.
Ben Judkins, a sophomore at Bonny Eagle who had a gym class with Wiese last year, described her as a quiet girl who smiled frequently. “She’s a really nice girl,” Judkins said.
Because of the message under the bridge and other notes she had left behind, speculation and news reports in the days after her disappearance focused on the possibility the teenager had committed suicide. But those who knew her refuse to believe she could have done that.
Wiese’s aunt, Cheryl Simmons, who lives in Washington, D.C., has been sleeping on a sofa at the Wiese home for the last six months. She said she doesn’t believe her niece took her own life.
“Not for one second,” said Simmons. “There’s no evidence she’s dead.”
Wesley and Cynthia Wiese, along with friends, family and other volunteers, continue to search for their daughter. At the Wiese home on Henry Hill Road Tuesday, a dining table was covered with posters, and a shelf was filled with photos of her.
“We’ll never give up hope,” her mother said.
Each night they pray their daughter will be found. When he goes to bed, Wesley Wiese worries about his daughter – where is she? Did she eat? He dreams about her disappearance.
“In the morning, you hope something will happen,” Wesley Wiese said.
The couple has to cope with their daughter’s disappearance while still providing for their 9-year-old son, Kyle. He last saw his sister when she got on the bus at 7 that morning.
Coreen Wiese liked to bake cookies and brownies after coming home from school. Kyle Wiese would often be the recipient of those, according to his parents.
“It’s hard for him,” Cynthia Wiese said. “You have to make a life for him.”
‘Every day brings more questions’
In recent months, as the Wieses have continued their search for their daughter, the buzz that once surrounded her disappearance has died down. The mystery is no longer a constant topic of conversation, but no one has forgotten her.
Michelle Woodcock, another clerk at the Buxton Mini Mart in Groveville, works the morning shift. A 2006 graduate of Bonny Eagle, Woodcock has heard little about the disappearance from customers recently.
“They just don’t talk about it,” Woodcock said. “I don’t think they’ve forgotten – no way.”
The disappearance was initially traumatic for many of the students at the at Bonny Eagle. Judkins said he first heard about it from a friend, Hillary Crouse, a junior and an acquaintance of Coreen Wiese.
“Oh my God. This doesn’t happen,” Judkins recalled saying. “Kids were crying.”
Crouse, who was hanging out with Judkins Tuesday afternoon at Low’s store in Buxton, said counseling is still available for students at the high school. “No one talks about it. Everyone is walking on eggshells,” said Crouse.
Wesley and Cythia Wiese regularly put up posters and contact state officials and missing children’s organizations to attract attention to the case.
They are frequently in contact with law enforcement to get updates. On Tuesday, as they sat at a dining table, the Buxton Police Department’s lead investigator, Mike Grovo, called to check in with them.
Cynthia Wiese signs her son in and out of elementary school every day. “For my own piece of mind,” she said, before leaving the home Tuesday to pick up Kyle.
Simmons, who last saw her niece in early October, was looking forward to a family trip to Georgia for Thanksgiving. She said her niece talked about college, enjoyed school and her new home in Buxton, where the family had moved last summer from Steep Falls.
That’s when the family got a dog, which the parents had promised they could have after moving into a bigger home. They went to a pet store. “Coreen picked it out,” her mom said.
In the home Tuesday, the energetic beagle was corraled in its crate. “Her name is Gracie,” Cynthia Wiese said, adding that both her children had named the beagle.
Coreen Wiese was diagnosed with mild epilepsy last summer and had a seizure in August. She didn’t have her medication with her when she disappeared on what was a cool, wet November day. Among his other fears, Wesley Wiese wonders if his daughter could have suffered hypothermia.
“Every day brings more questions and no answers,” Simmons said. “It rips my heart out.”
Every day, Wesley and Cynthia Wiese of Buxton light a candle and say a prayer for their daughter, Coreen Wiese, who has been missing for the last six months.Send questions/comments to the editors.
