Richard Batteese of Freeport and Jo-Ann Christian of New Gloucester stood at the Limington Rapids Sunday morning and watched as a boat from the Maine Warden Service drove upstream toward the bridge that has been the focus of the search for a 15-year-old Buxton girl.
The Warden Service has been searching the water for more than two weeks for any sign of Coreen Wiese since she disappeared on Nov. 8. Batteese, a white water rafter, is familiar with the rough waters that run under the Route 25 bridge over the Saco River. A local hangout for teenagers, the water there is known as the “Limington Rips.”
“Some of those rocks will roll you over,” said Batteese. “You have to know what you’re doing to go out there. The wind and water are powerful.”
Many, like Batteese and Christian, have watched and wondered as the Warden Service has searched the river and its banks. The mystery of what happened to the quiet, young girl, who was a good student at Bonny Eagle High School, only deepened last week when the FBI descended on the town and set up a command post in the Buxton Town Hall.
The Pee Wee soccer league was holding its annual banquet in the selectmen’s chambers there last Thursday night when FBI agents began carting in their equipment. They waited for the banquet to end before moving into the chambers, drawing the blinds and covering the windows in the doors with brown paper.
The FBI had asked the town to install two additional phone lines – one for a fax machine – in the room by Friday morning. When Deputy Town Clerk Brenda Brown arrived for shortly after 8 a.m. that Friday, the parking lot behind town hall was filled, an unusual sight normally reserved for contentious meetings of the planning board or selectmen.
By mid-afternoon, 45 cars were parked there, not counting Buxton police cruisers and TV news vans. Of those, 16 had Massachusetts license plates, two had New Hampshire plates, and one had Rhode Island plates.
“I never saw so many cars in the back parking lot, not even on Election Day,” said Buxton Selectman Carol Sanborn.
Maine wardens used the kitchen adjacent to the command post to eat their lunch. Some investigators stood outdoors while talking on cell phones. An obvious stranger emerging from the command post into the town hall lobby was pointed to the men’s room before he asked.
Onlookers left to wonder
Meanwhile, on the opposite end of town, the rapids at the bridge where investigators found an MP3 player and cell phone belonging to Wiese continued to draw people from around the region. Lisa Kilgore of Portland felt compelled to visit the site Saturday.
Kilgore experienced the terror of a missing child 20 years ago when her 15-month-old son was missing for five hours after being taken from the care of a babysitter. Kilgore’s child was later found in woods.
“It’s very scary. I immediately thought the worst,” said Kilgore. “I was just beside myself. I didn’t know what to think or feel.”
Jodie Devendorf of Standish, who also stopped by the rapids on Saturday, had watched on TV the public plea of Wiese’s parents, as they told their daughter they loved her and asked her to contact them. Despite the reports of suicide notes left at the home and school and the cryptic note under the bridge, which reads “11/8/06 RIP CW,” Devendorf doesn’t believe Wiese committed suicide.
“I want to say she ran away from what I’ve heard on the news,” said Devendorf.
Those who knew Wiese agree that suicide seems unlikely for her. Dot Dyer of Steep Falls has known Wiese since she was 3 years old, when her granddaugther met her in a play group. Wiese, her granddaughter and their friends often played at her home.
“She’s very sweet, very smart,” Dyer said of the missing girl. “A little bit quiet, but she warms up quickly.”
She said suicide would be uncharacteristic of her personality. “I can’t imagine that happening,” she said.
‘Keepers’
Debe Loughlin of Gorham and her husband, Peter, visited the rapids Saturday to see the rushing water, learning it was the site where Wiese was last seen. Experienced canoeists familiar with the rapids, the Loughlins described treacherous pockets in the rapids as “keepers” with the power to swallow.
“A keeper sucks you in sideways,” she said. “It sucks you in like a magnet.”
Her husband said the water was extremely high Sunday for that location. “See how fast it’s moving,” said Peter Loughlin.
The high water has been keeping a diver from the Warden Service from searching the water, according to Officer Mike Grovo, the lead investigator for the Buxton police. Grovo described the waters as “fast and furious.”
Christian, who like her friend Batteese, had also experienced the rapids, said they were no place for a teenager to be alone. She once went body surfing through them with her 8-year-old.
“It’s nerve wracking,” said Christian. “There’s definitely a strong current.”
As people came to visit the rapids Saturday, investigators examined the site under the bridge where the message and Wiese’s belongings had been found. Among other things, they removed what appeared to be a small, plastic statue of Jesus that had been left under the message written on the bridge.
By early this week, the FBI had packed up its command post. The approximately 15 agents who swooped into Buxton last week returned to their offices in other states. Agents based in Portland continue to investigate locally.
As the search and investigation continued this week, Wiese’s friends and family were left with only rumors, speculation and unanswered questions.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
