SKOWHEGAN — Maine State Police investigators returned on Wednesday to property off Route 150 in Skowhegan, picking up where they had left off the previous day in the search for clues about the fate of a Skowhegan woman who disappeared nearly six months ago.
The last known sighting of Tina Stadig, 40, occurred on May 28 in Skowhegan. She reportedly was seen July 10 at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter by a case manager at the shelter and might be using the name of her sister, Tammy, or Jen, a fake name, Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam has said.
Stadig was reported as a missing person on Tuesday, July 4, and a Skowhegan police detective took up the case.
Donna Almeida said in a Facebook message to the newspaper in July that Tina Stadig is her daughter and that she suffers from mental illness.
Investigators on Wednesday were seen poring over debris and junk in and around an abandoned house near the roadside at the property, about 2.5 to 3 miles from downtown Skowhegan. The primary residence is at the back of the property and is the home of a man who police say was known to Stadig, and she occasionally stayed there.
A state police evidence response team truck was on scene Wednesday, as were several unmarked state police cruisers. Investigators took photographs of items in and around the abandoned house.
The continuing search efforts came with the state police Major Crimes Unit and the Maine Warden Service joining in the search for Stadig on Tuesday, an indication that authorities think the case might involve suspicious circumstances.
“Investigators, detectives have been trying to retrace her footsteps,” Lt. Jeffrey Love, head of the Major Crimes Unit, said at the scene Tuesday. “A certain amount of time has gone by, so you have to go back to the beginning of this and where she was last and then work from there. We’re looking for clues, any signs of anything that may tell us where she may be.”
Tina’s sister, Tonia Stadig, said in a message Tuesday to the Morning Sentinel that she knows who lives at the home where police were searching and she suspects the man who lives there might have had something to do with her sister’s disappearance.
Stadig is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighs about 140 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes. Anyone with information on her is asked to call either Skowhegan police at 474-6908 or state police in Augusta at 624-7076.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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