PLEASANT RIDGE PLANTATION — Maine State Police on Friday suspended their search of a remote area of Somerset County, and they’re still not saying what they were looking for.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said Friday morning the search was over and nothing was found in the woods.
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The two-day search, which involved about two dozen state troopers, was prompted by a tip, McCausland said.
“This was information that we needed to scratch off our list, and this week it was done,” he said.
McCausland previously would not give details about the search except to say that it was not related to the case of Ayla Reynolds, a missing Waterville toddler.
“I’m not specifying what type of investigation, what case this was involved in or what we were looking for, other than to confirm we were there and we didn’t find what we were looking for,” he said.
On Thursday morning, there were at least 17 police cruisers on an old logging road off Rowe Pond Road in Pleasant Ridge Plantation, west of Bingham, including a mobile evidence processing vehicle from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit. The unit is used in cases in which homicides and suspicious deaths are involved.
State police on Friday also took advantage of a routine draining of Messalonskee Stream in Waterville to conduct a limited search for Ayla, but found nothing.
McCausland said the fact the searches were taking place the day after the Pleasant Ridge search began was coincidental.
Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Ben McCanna can be contacted at 861-9239 or at:
bmccanna@centralmaine.com
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