Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - TEEN GIRL STEFANIE, 13, "LOST IN WOODS"

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Lisa and Christopher Damron head into town for a job interview, leaving the children with their grandfather. Around 3:00 pm, their eldest daughter texts that Stefanie left the house and they can’t find her. She explains she got in an argument with Stefanie over which chores each of them would take, and Stefanie stormed off into the woods. This isn’t unusual for Stefanie, and the Damrons assume she will return before it starts to get dark.  While their parents are away, Stefanie gets in an argument with her sister over their chores and storms out the open front door, which her grandfather is trying to realign. Grandpa tries to stop Stefanie—but after noticing tears in her eyes, he lets the 13-year-old go, assuming she will return after cooling off. He sees Stephanie walk off into the woods and eventually goes back to his work.   When Stefanie still hasn’t returned an hour and a half later, the Damron's come home to search for her. Stefanie is extremely familiar with the woods near their home, and they check all her usual spots—but find no trace of the 13-year-old. The family doesn’t think Stefanie would have headed to the main road, but as they walk the half mile trail leading to the street, Grandpa and some of her siblings remember hearing some kind of vehicle pass by just a few minutes after Stefanie left.   As sunset approaches with no sign of Stefanie, the Damrons become increasingly concerned that Stefanie is no longer in the area. The teen isn’t responding to anyone screaming her name, she does not have her own cellphone, and temperatures have dropped more than 10 degrees. First thing in the morning, the Damrons officially report Stephanie missing with Maine State Police. Joining Nancy Grace today:  Christie Rand - Volunteer Searcher for Stefanie Damron Tom Green - Former Chief Deputy Washoe County Sheriff’s Office; Homicide Detective & Cold Case Squad Burglary/Fraud Detective; high tech surveillance & covert surveillance. Currently a Private Investigator, Owner Nevada Investigative Services LLC Dr. Angela Arnold  - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA, AngelaArnoldMD.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital, Voted My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2022, 2023 and 2024. Alexis Tereszcuk - Crime Online Investigative Reporter  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A teen girl, Stephanie, just 13, is lost in the woods, say her parents. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. A teen girl disappears from her new Sweden main home, last seen by her grandfather walking into the woods. Where is Stephanie? Who saw her go into the woods?

We're getting a lot of conflicting reports about the last time Stephanie was saying just 13 years old. And I've got a problem with that. And I'll tell you why. It was over 20 years ago that I last saw my fiance before he was murdered. I know what time it was. I know what he was wearing. I know what he said. I can identify his vehicle, his shirt, everything. I don't have a problem with that. It's crystal clear in my mind. So why is there confusion about what happened to 13-year-old Stephanie? Joining me in All-Star panel, but first, listen to this. Maine State Police and the FBI are asking the public for help locating a teen from New Sweden, Maine, who walked into the woods and hasn't been seen again.

Stephanie Damron has turned 14 since her disappearance four months ago. Stephanie is five feet tall, 130 pounds with green eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing a long sleeve blue shirt and black Harley Davidson hiking boots. There is a $15,000 reward and it's climbing. And now we understand the FBI has been called in on the search for Stephanie. The description of her is shoulder length, light brown hair, and I've seen repeatedly striking green eyes. Now, we just saw her dad speaking, and that's from our friends at Patrol Live. I want to see the dad one more time, please.

Let's watch dad, Christopher Dale. It was not her phone. It was her grandfather's phone. We had bought an old, simple phone. We didn't even know it could connect to the internet. Come to find out, this cheap $20 flip phone was how she ended up connecting to the internet. Again, joining me, an all-star panel, including a volunteer searcher who has been out searching for Stephanie.

I'm trying to figure something out. To Tom Green joining us, former chief deputy, Washoe County Sheriff's Office, former homicide detective, Colt K. Squad burglary, owner of Nevada Investigative Services. Tom, what can you tell me about this family living as homesteaders, as you say? Yeah, so, you know, this is a different lifestyle. These are folks that want to sustain on their own. They don't want to be meddled with. They don't want to be fiddled with. They don't want law enforcement. Okay. Speak English to me. What do you mean sustain?

I sustain myself every day when I work and put dinner on the table. But I've got an idea. You mean something entirely different. I do. So we're talking about no power. Any power, any electricity they have is going to be generators. As you heard, a flip flip phone one flip phone supposedly no power why don't they have any power well they're using generators to to to run things

when they need power but this is off the grid why do you want a generator that can go down i've got a generator and i go test the thing every week. But wait a minute. If you're not going to have power, that's a lifestyle choice, I guess. But if you're going to use a generator and you do have power, what's the point of not having power? Do they not want any connection to the power company? You know, it could be and it could be just it could be cost prohibitive. They live like a half a mile from a road in a forested area of a town of 575 people. And this is remote, as remote as it gets. But I guarantee you the next door neighbors have electricity. What do you mean it's cost prohibitive? Well, and it could be. You know how much a generator costs?

If you can afford a generator, you can afford a monthly power bill. Right. And you know, according to them, that's what they were doing when their daughter went missing. What did you say about sustaining themselves? I'm sorry. I'm just trying to get an understanding of how this little girl was living. Yeah. Well, you know, like I said before, it's, no plumbing, no running water. Put him up. Whoa, wait a minute. A yurt.

That's a fancy name for a tent. Basically, yes. Where are the other two children? Do we know where they are? My understanding is that they're adults and have left the home and on their own. Gee, I wonder why they'd want to get out of there. Tom, I don't want to get too far afield from the fact that Stephanie's missing and their conflicting stories about when she was seen last.

But Chrissy Rand is joining me, a special guest, in addition to Tom Green, Dr. Angie Arnold, and Alexis Tereschuk. Chrissy is a volunteer searcher who does not really know the family, but took it upon herself to go out and try to find this little girl. Christy, first of all, what led you to join the search for Stephanie? I have a distant family connection to another missing person here in the state. So I've done advocacy work for that relative for about six or seven years. And she had a similar circumstance

of being presumed to have walked away. And in her case, hundreds of volunteers searched her area for almost a month. And the stark difference in the response for Stephanie was really what called me to her case. What was the difference, Christy? Stephanie had no on-the-boots ground volunteer searches for the first at least 24 hours since the delay in reporting.

And beyond that, a scale of even a third or a fourth of the size of what should have happened didn't happen for over a month. So there was a lack of real serious response that would lead you to think that she could be lost in the woods or had fallen and been injured just based on the lack of volunteers and searching that was happening on the ground. Okay. Christy, I've got a cramp in my hand trying to write down everything that you just said. That's a lot of information. First of all, delay in reporting.

My ears pricked up when I heard that. What delay in reporting? Yes. So we've been told it's about a 24-hour delay, and we like to consider that it was actually longer, closer to probably 27 or 28 hours. The parents claim that they received the call that Stephanie had walked off in the early afternoon, let's say afternoon time. And the call to report her missing didn't come in until around 4 p.m. the following day. We know a little bit about circumstances surrounding her disappearance, yet even the facts we have gleaned have become murky. But this is what we originally learned. Listen. Stephanie Damron, 13, is one of six siblings homeschooled by their parents, Lisa and Christopher

Damron. The family of eight, along with the children's grandfather, live in a rural wooded area, preferring an off-grid lifestyle. The children are all very familiar with the woods surrounding their home, with Stephanie spending hours outside for time to herself. While their parents are away, Stephanie gets in an argument with her sister over their chores and storms out of the open front door. Grandpa tries to stop Stephanie, but after noticing tears in her eyes, he lets the 13-year-old go, assuming she will return after cooling off.

Okay, I'm trying to make sense of what I am hearing right now. I've since heard Grandpa did not see her walking off into the woods. I've also heard that what was seen is Stephanie walking into the backyard. Okay. Alexis Tereschuk joining me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Alexis, which of these versions is true? Could they both be true? You remember I told you about my former judge, one of the many judges I practiced in front of, but this one particular judge, Judge Luther Alverson, the oldest working judge in the courthouse, and I might like to add the best. He would tell juries, it is your duty to make all witnesses

speak the truth impugning perjury on no one. In other words, two people can have different stories, but they're both telling the truth, right? Based on their vantage point, what they recall, what they heard. It can be true that two witnesses statements can both be true, but yet they are diametrically opposed to each other. So help me understand what happened when Stephanie went into the woods and is never seen again. So she got in a fight with her sister. It was over the chores they have in their property. Also are homeschooled.

So she could happen to be doing her homework. It was school time. It was the fall and anything about that, taking care of the other children, laundry, dishes, anything. So she gets in a fight with her sister. She leaves. The sister says she sees her walk in the woods. Grandpa says he looked at her. She was crying. He wasn't going to stop her. Now he could have just not turned around and watched her walk away. She has apparently done this a lot in the past. She gets upset. She's a teenager. She gets upset. She walks around the property. She kicks some rocks. She cools off and she comes home. So they weren't

initially worried is perhaps why they didn't call the police originally. And after 27 hours, well, they weren't originally worried in the beginning. This is something she has done before. They've said that she has often sort of left and walked out on her own. Again, they own a huge property. She could have just wanted to be outside. Is it a huge property? Christy Rand, you have searched the property before you members of the volunteers were blocked by the family, according to reports from coming back on the property to search.

How big is that property, Christy? It's a good chunk of acres and it backs up to another set of wooded land that could take you eventually out to a street, but it's going to be really dense and difficult to walk through. But just as I said before, the driveway itself is over a quarter mile. So it is dense forest with very— That's a five-minute walk. that's not that much i mean you have to be walking slowly to make a 20 minute mile it's not even necessarily a driveway so like this time of year there is no access by vehicle it would be walking only it's not paved um there's

no plow trap coming through in the winter like we have right now is covered. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Christy Rand, I am looking at a 365 degree view. There's nothing but trees. I see exactly what you mean. And it should be said, the neighbor directly across the street from them, that home is also empty. So walking to the end of the street, someone there, if she was walking to the road, they wouldn't have seen anything. But the reality is, isn't it true, Alexis Tereschuk, that canines were ultimately brought out? They were, and they didn't find anything that led them to her at all. They't it true, Alexis Tereschuk, that canines were ultimately brought out? They were, and they didn't find anything that led them to her at all. They didn't say, oh, it went right up to the street

edge. We lost it here, meaning that maybe she got into a car with the person that she had contacted on this cell phone. They couldn't really find anything of her. You know, I find a lot of this to be inconsistent, but what I do know is a 13-year-old girl is missing. Listen to this. Stephanie still hasn't returned an hour and a half later. Stephanie is very familiar with the woods near their home, and they check all her usual spots, but find no trace of the 13-year-old. The family doesn't think Stephanie would have headed to the main road, but as they walk the half- trail leading to the street grandpa and some of her siblings remember hearing some kind of vehicle pass by just a few minutes after stephanie

left where we live at in the way we live first few hours there was no reason to raise the red flag so we got the phone calls that she took off of the road and we figured by the time we get home she'd be back you are hearing dad speaking that's dale Dale Damron with our friends at On Patrol Live. I'm trying to analyze what I'm hearing. He says where we live and the way we live, the first few hours, there was no reason to raise the red flag. So we got the phone calls that she took off up the road and figured by the time we'd get home, she'd be back and that would be the end of it.

Okay, that's conflicting. Christy Rand, I thought that the parents went in town to fill out applications for jobs that while they were gone, Stephanie argues with a sister about chores and she tears up and walks out of the home into the woods. Now we've heard she just went into the backyard and then suddenly disappears. Now I'm hearing that they heard a car go by a quarter of a mile away on the road. They heard a car go by. I'm also hearing the father say, we got the phone call.

She took up off the road. When we got home, we thought she'd be back and that would be the end of it. When he says she took off up the road, does he mean the public road or up the driveway? What does this mean? It's definitely concerning that at first the answer is we aren't sure if she would have gone to the road at all. And then we've heard a car near the road. And now it's that she took off toward the road.

So that in itself can be confusing. And hearing a car on the road doesn't really, I mean, do we not expect to hear cars on the road? It was the middle of the afternoon. For all we know, that could have been a neighbor coming home, a mailman out front. I don't think there's anything significant to be heard from any of that other than discrepancies. A 13 year old girl goes for a walk, but doesn't return. The family reports hearing, but not seeing a vehicle. Where is Stephanie Damron? A lot of confusing and murky facts, but I absolutely know this, that police were not called the entire evening. She was not reported missing until first thing the following morning.

Now, I don't understand that. To Christy Rand, have you ever got an explanation why the parents went overnight without reporting their 13-year-old girl was gone? Do I have that timeline correct? She was not reported missing until the next morning? The earliest confirmation that we've gotten for the reason that happened is that they were under the assumption that you needed to wait 24 hours to report missing. And so they were supposedly waiting for that 24 hour mark. And unfortunately, they weren't waiting by the clock and missed the 24 hour mark before making the phone call. And as far as the quote saying that they were in the woods screaming and looking for her, you know, that leading up to that 24 hour mark, there are no neighbors that ever received a knock from them.

If they were out looking for those 24 hours, it was not to a neighbor. Hey, Chrissy, how close is the home to, say, for instance, a convenience store? Miles. 10 miles, 20 miles, one mile? I'm not comfortable saying for sure, but a convenience store miles 10 miles 20 miles one mile i'm not comfortable saying for sure but i would say about 10 miles it would be a lengthy walk for a teenage girl to be going to the local gas station on foot her closest neighbors would have been safer locations for her to go where they have figurative uncle Andrew who lives nearby. There are other people on their street that she would have been more likely to walk to before

attempting to reach town. Okay, let me understand something. Tom Green and I both say the family lived in a yurt, which is a glorified tent. You say, no, it's not a yurt. Then what is it? So I'm also from Maine where we have homesteads here. There's a lot of people who choose to live kind of an alternative homesteading lifestyle. And to me, a yurt would be a solid structure built to withstand the elements of Maine's weather. You could potentially have wood stove in there and it would, it would come in a way that it's built to last and protect,

provide protection from the elements and anything else you need to sustain yourself longterm over winters. There are people who rent them for Airbnbs and anything and beyond up here. What they have i call a diy version of that where they have a handmade center structure that they've extended with tent-like structures off of the perimeter to create a diy version of a tent so they're living in a tent-like structure. Does each child have their have their own space or are they all in one room? They have small separate room-like living quarters. They wouldn't be what we consider rooms with our own windows and doors but they would be

separated from each other for a little bit of privacy. There's no indoor bathroom or anything like that. So it isn't the, it's not the structure that we would all want to see our kids raised in, but for people who are choosing an alternative lifestyle, it could be seen as fit. When you refer to them as homesteaders, what is your interpretation of the word homesteader? Possibly being off the grid like they are, using a generator when they absolutely need power, not using everyday amenities like the running water, but still having access to potable water to use for washing dishes or cleaning yourself up,

potentially using animals and other techniques to, you know, have your own garden, grow your own vegetables, process your own chicken, survive off the land and need as much outside substance as possible. OK, Dr. Angela Arnold joining me, a renowned psychiatrist, joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, voted my Buckhead's best psychiatric practice of 22, 23, and 24. Dr. Angie, I'm not judging. I don't care. I have lived in a tent over the summer when I was a camp counselor in the National Forest. I have been in a yurt. I certainly don't live that way now with the children and my mother living with us, but that's

it. I don't care how these people live. What I do care about is the fact that, quote, off the grid and homesteading, homeschooling, that gives a lot less eyes on the child. I can't even figure out when she was last seen, for Pete's sake. Well, and my big question is why, Nancy, why are they living like this? Like, it makes us wonder if they're running away from something. And this little girl at 13 or 14 years old, sounds like she may be getting tired of this way of living. Oftentimes when people run away, they can either be running away from something that's going on in the home environment, or they can also actually be running towards something that they're looking for.

Okay. So remember that they can be running away or towards something else. So we're all questioning this way of life. What about the other four children? Are they questioning this way of life? I mean, you become, I'm not questioning their way of life. This is America. It's not communist China where they know everything you're thinking and doing. But is the little girl questioning their way of life? And is she running away from something that's going on in the home? Or is she running towards something, another way of life that she would prefer to live? That's my question in all of this, because I don't believe we have enough information past that. The girl is gone. Was she running away from something or was she running towards something? Okay, Nancy? And all we know is that that little girl is gone. Despite extensive investigative efforts, including a neighborhood canvas and video search, along with an expansive grid search utilizing canines from Maine Warden Service and Maine State Police, Stephanie is still missing.

That from our friends at News Center Maine. the years old, described as having shoulder length, light brown hair and strikingly green eyes, was either running away from something or running to something. Let's explore the theory she's running away from something. Isn't it true, Alexis Tereschuk, that there was a quote, CPS fiasco back in Texas. And I'm getting that from what purports to be one of the parents' Facebook. A, quote, CPS, Child Protective Services, fiasco back in Texas. And they fled Texas and moved to Maine. Explain what happened.

So the police were called because the parents were inside a McDonald's and they appeared drunk. So the police came up. They found them. They arrested them for being drugged. Then they realized two of their children were in the car outside. So the parents weren't even taking care of the children that were in the car. And that's where they were charged with child abandonment. I believe they they definitely got much lesser charges and they didn't serve any time in jail. But it was definitely CPS was involved after the police found them having left their children in the car while they were drunk inside McDonald's. The tip line, everyone, is 1-800-924-2261 or the FBI 1-800-CALL-FBI. That's 1-800-225-5324. There is a reward with information leading to the

whereabouts of this little 13-year-old girl. Now, you mentioned earlier, Christy Rand, that some people were searching the property under the theory she may have, quote, fallen. What? I think it was important for everyone that was volunteering to search the general area that since we did not find Stephanie in the first 24 hours or in that first week, there was some possibility since there were also no sightings, no credible reports of her being seen in town or in their closest city or anywhere else in the state. It was important to make sure that if she had taken her adventure in the woods to go

cool off, that she had not fallen, tripped, gotten injured or anything of the sort and just was unable to reach help. You stated that neighbors did not hear anyone calling out her name or screaming or going door to door looking for her? No. So no neighbors heard anything that 24 hour period delay of reporting her missing that they were out screaming in the woods looking for her. Neighbors heard nothing. They also never received a knock on their door from dad or mom. The neighbors actually, the first knock they received was from authorities days later, asking for video footage and if they had seen anything. To Tom Green, joining me, owner of Nevada Investigative Services and former chief deputy in Washoe County, I want you to hear again what the father is saying.

It was not her phone. It was her grandfather's phone. We had bought an old simple phone. We didn't even know it could connect to the internet. Come to find out this cheap $20 flip phone was the house she ended up connecting to the internet. Okay, I want to analyze that. And you're seeing that video from our friends at On Patrol Live. To connect to the internet, of course, you have to have Wi-Fi.

Okay. If you don't have electricity and you don't have an indoor bathroom, is it consistent that grandpa has an quote, old simple phone that connects to the internet? Does that make sense to you? Not exactly. But what also doesn't make sense to me is the mom and dad said they received a call about her going missing. How did that call occur? Did it occur from the property? Did it go from a neighbor? Did somebody drive to town? We don't know how close the nearest cell tower is to their home. You know, theoretically, you could get data and access the internet on a device that's capable of doing those things. If you're in range of a cell tower, maybe the neighbor has Wi-Fi. We just don't know. I think I know about the call.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Alexis and Christy. After she went out the door, after a spat with her sister regarding chores, apparently someone, I guess the grandpa, someone called the mom and dad who say they were in town filling out a job application and said she stormed out. They believed, well, she'll be back in an hour and a half or so when we get home. They come home. She's not there. I'm assuming that call came from grandpa's flip phone. Is that your understanding, Alexis Tereschuk? Yes, it is. And there haven't been any reports saying she took grandpa's phone.

So she was, they've always admitted that grandpa has a phone. And just because it was a flip phone doesn't mean it can't make calls. So they called the parents with the flip phone. What about it, Christy Rand? Yes, I believe that's exactly what we've been told as well, that he had a flip phone, that Stephanie was commonly using it, but did not take it with her when she left that day.

And we are unclear on whether or not the phone call happened immediately as she was walking away, or if they waited 20 or 30 minutes to connect to service, connect to Wi-Fi, get to a neighbor's house to make the call. It's unclear how soon that call happened. So to your knowledge, do they have internet access there? Do they have Wi-Fi? I mean, they don't have a commode. I'm not judging. I don't care. I'm just trying to figure out if you don't have a commode, you have Wi-Fi. What?

We've asked about the Wi-Fi and we're unable to get a clear answer as to whether or not they had it. But if you notice the on patrol interview that dad has done, he appears to be recording that video from the yurt. And as far as we know, it appeared like it may be live. So for that to be possible, there is some type of Wi-Fi connection, whether it's coming from a hotspot or a cell phone. He is in that yurt, it appears, and clearly has a device that he can use to record a video and send to on patrol. So there must be some way to connect to the internet via a phone, a hotspot, or a Wi-Fi router. Okay, Christy, and everybody on the panel, jump in if you have insight onto this. Is it true search teams were ultimately barred from searching the property?

Yes, we have search teams that were denied access after the first initial searches. There was a series of events that went down that became hostile. We were denied access to the property without a warrant. And I believe there was a Facebook post made in the Mysteries of Maine group by Dale himself explaining that no one was welcome to return without a warrant or permission. And so that is part of why we've created the... Why? I don't think he needed a reason. I mean, I would want everybody and their brother and sister looking for my child.

I don't understand. Why would you bar searchers from looking for your child? I'm going to just try to keep that there's a possibility he is extremely uncomfortable with the press and the publicity that this has gotten and for his own reasons may just want official search teams to be there and and maybe only wants FBI and police to be on his property from now on. It also could be extremely uncomfortable for them as parents to have us volunteers coming out to search for Stephanie and also asking questions about the electricity, the Wi-Fi connection, whether or not there was

cell service. Because of course, when you have a dozen volunteer searchers invited to your property, all of us are going to be bringing our smartphones, using maps and devices to communicate with each other. So it was fairly instantly that volunteers were able to determine there's no cell service here. So where's this phone call coming from and how did this all work? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. There are tips from the public that maybe she had a social media friend at the time or an acquaintance. So we just try to follow up on any information for those outside states. That was Lieutenant Darren Karn from the Maine State Police, courtesy of our friends at New Center Maine.

Let's talk about the so-called Internet searches. Tom, you said something very significant. You said, let's listen to the exact words we're hearing. Why did you say that? What do you mean? What have you gleaned? Well, you know, statement analysis is critical. People say things that they may not want to because it's the truth. And an instance like that where he said that she had been on the Internet, it wasn't it wasn't a speculation.

He knows somehow that she had accessed the Internet. To Alexis Tereschuk, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, he said that she had been on dating sites, right? He did say that. Remember, she is only 13. You're not supposed to be on dating sites when you are 13. They really try to, you have to put in details and identification and things like that. But dad said she had been on dating websites all through a little flip phone. Yeah, all through a flip phone and no one knew she was doing it. Dr. Angie Arnold, renowned psychiatrist. Dr. Angie, isn't it true? The more you, I guess it'd be reverse psychology.

The more you try to keep a child away from a certain thing, that's the thing that they want. The more, okay, they fled Texas after a CPS fiasco, they come to Homestead here in New Sweden, Maine. And you've seen let's take a look at that 365 degree photo and an aerial. You can't get your child much further away from society, from school, from other people, from other children than here and still live in the U.S. It's on the Canadian border. So she tries, they try so much to keep the child away that that's exactly what Stephanie did.

Nancy, they don't go to school. They don't have a phone. So if this child can gain access to a phone via her grandfather and she's vulnerable because of her age. OK, what else is she going to do but look at some sort of a Web site where she could possibly find someone else to talk to. So she is very much vulnerable and she could be a victim to any number of things that could happen to her on the internet. But oftentimes children will reach out when they get the opportunity because they feel so pinned down by all of this isolation that the parents are trying to, you know, sometimes under the guise of keeping them safe. I don't know much about this family, but there are a lot of conspiracy theorists out there. They don't want children to hear other things that are going on in the world.

And so she very well could have reached out on the only device in the home. Getting back to the facts that we know, Tom Green, if the authorities, if L.A. law enforcement took all the devices and looked at them, wouldn't they know which dating site she had allegedly gone to? And if so, who would be her social media friend? And then find that person. It's not rocket science. I agree with you. And the fact that the FBI is still involved makes it seem that it's less of a chance that she ran away and is deceased in the woods, God forbid, and that there's more of a chance that she either got picked up, met someone, something like that, and is in a vulnerable state because of her age. Christy Rand, there was recently a vigil.

A vigil was held for Stephanie to keep her disappearance in the news media. Did you attend the vigil? I did not. Christy, you have devoted so much of your time to try to find Stephanie. Why did you not go to the vigil? There have been safety concerns for volunteers and organizers, and we were hoping to have confirmation that law enforcement would be present that day so that we could be protected, the family could be protected.

And since we weren't able to have that, there were members that decided it would be best not to attend. Were you actually afraid that you would be confronted at the vigil? I think it was a possibility. And if not for confrontation, family members, town residents, anyone who would have a reason to not want us on their property in general. There are people that live in New Sweden who just genuinely want their privacy and are not interested in dozens of volunteers knocking on doors with permission slips asking to put boots on their ground. The FBI and Maine State Police working to find a teen who vanishes from her new Sweden home. The reward tops $15,000. Tom Green, I'm very surprised that neither search dogs nor cadaver dogs picked up a cent.

That tells me she did leave the property. But how? They don't have a trail of her leaving. Exactly. And you know, that area, they're 18 miles to the Crow flies about to the canadian border it is heavily wooded chocked full of trails and roads for atvs not easily surveilled from the sky that night it got down to 41 degrees all these things the time delay the temperature the humidity all these things factor in with the dog's ability to gather a scent. And the fact that they didn't give a scent is obviously not good and could be an indication that she left in some sort of motorized vehicle or walked along a roadway, a paved roadway somewhere leaving the area. You know, the

parents have been quoted as saying everybody's looking at them as having something to do with Stephanie's disappearance. That's not uncommon. The first place you look is at family and those closest to the missing child. That in no way suggests the parents are responsible for her disappearance. Not at all. That is where every investigation starts when there is a missing person now regarding hearing a vehicle they are quoted the family is quoted as saying they don't know if it was a vehicle a four-wheeler a motorcycle and by the time anyone got to the road the vehicle was already gone the mom also states that she began looking immediately going up and down the roads and everything because she stephan, has done this before.

I've been able to find her in the past, but this time I could not find her. Is that accurate, Alexis Therese Chuck? That is absolutely. They said that she had a history of leaving the property running out. They would call it running away, but she didn't run away. She was just on their big property. She was hiding in the woods, hiding in different places. They always found her to come back. So that was one of the reasons why they weren't as panicked as if she had not had this history of doing this, they would

have said immediately, let's find her. But this was something she had done before. So it didn't raise a red flag for them right away. Christy Rand, who has searched repeatedly for Stephanie. Christy, you stated that their property backs up against a much bigger and more densely wooded area. Has that area been searched? and then back to the next parallel road. So any possibility that Stephanie had taken any trail from their side of town to another has been checked. Shows that we are definitely not just looking at the parents, we're looking at every possibility. And again, that means nothing when we say we're looking at the parents. Of course, we're looking at the parents.

Everybody looks at the parents and the family first and then the investigation moves out from there. Why? Because statistically, very often, especially when the child is very young, like a toddler, the family is responsible for the disappearance. That's not to say that happened here. Take a listen to Lieutenant Darren Karn with Maine State Police. Everything is still on the table for us, from her simply being missing to run away to the worst situation, because we don't have any concrete leads or tips that have led us basically in one direction or the other. That's for our friends at News Center Maine.

Everyone is being eyeballed. All scenarios are being researched. I'm curious about what, if any, leads came from grandpa's flip phone, where reportedly Stephanie had been on a dating site. If that had anything to do with her disappearance, think about it. When mom and dad leave to go to town to apply for this job, she gets grandpa's phone. She has met somebody online at just 13 years old and tries to meet up with them. It's happened so many times before with tragic results. We just don't know. But what we do know is this 13 yearold little girl is missing. If you know or think you know anything about the whereabouts of Stephanie Dameron,

just 13 years old when she disappeared, please dial 1-800-CALL-FBI, 1-800-225-5324. There is a $15,000 reward that is climbing. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.