Police report ‘hundreds of leads’ in probe

OAKLAND – When Maine State Police Lt. Tim Doyle left his house Friday before resuming his role as commander of the investigation into the homicide of a 21-year-old Colby College student, he asked his wife to call their own college-aged daughter at her campus and tell her to be careful.

With those words, Doyle made it clear that he’s afraid that Rossignol’s killer may not have targeted her personally, but instead chose her at random.

It’s the kind of crime that happens rarely in Maine and has people throughout mid-Maine and beyond on edge.

There was no new information released by investigators on Friday when they held another press conference behind the Oakland Police Department. No arrest had been made.

“People are calling us. I’d say we now have hundreds of leads that we are following up on,” Doyle said. “We have received information about people of interest and we are looking at those.”

While they are hearing of “people of interest,” there is still no suspect in the homicide.

“In many of these cases, we are simply ruling people out, but we are looking into every lead we get,” he said.

Rossignol was reported missing Tuesday when she failed to meet her mother in Bangor for a scheduled doctor’s appointment.

About 24 hours later, a police officer spotted her 1993 Mercury Sable parked beside a small dirt road leading down to a hydro plant on Rice Rips Road, about a mile from the Colby campus.

Rossignol’s body was found about 300 feet in front of her car along the Messalonskee Stream.

Police have not released a cause of death nor said whether Rossignol had been sexually assaulted.

Investigators believe that Rossignol was abducted from a parking lot located a couple of hundred yards away from her dormitory at about 7:20 a.m. Tuesday as she was leaving for Bangor. They believe she had been killed by 9 a.m.

“It remains important and crucial that anyone with any information or anyone who might have seen Dawn or her vehicle between those times contact us,” Doyle said.

More than 50 police officers and wardens are working the case, either searching the area surrounding the crime scene for evidence or following up leads, Doyle said.

When asked whether Rossignol’s death might at all be related to the attempted abduction of a University of Maine student on Aug. 10, Doyle said “right now we don’t have a connection.”

He stressed, however that no doors had been closed in the investigation.