Police seek clues on missing teen Caribou officer appeals to public

CARIBOU – Local police don’t have any strong leads in their investigation of a Caribou teenager who has been missing for seven days, but they are hoping to locate someone who might know where she is.

Simone Willett, 17, disappeared March 29 from Caribou, though police do not know if she is still in the area.

In a related matter, the reward for any information on Willett’s whereabouts has been raised from $500 to $1,000, her mother, JoAnn Labbe, said Sunday.

“Whoever knows her whereabouts, we wish they would step forward and give some information,” a distraught Labbe said during a brief phone interview.

“She’s a bright, young girl who’s simply lost her way,” she said as she began to cry. “We need to find her.”

Willett was last seen leaving her house after a dispute with Labbe around 10 p.m. last Monday, according to Officer Chris Thornton of the Caribou Police Department.

Willett has had a tumultuous relationship with her mother, the officer said Sunday.

The Caribou High School junior had been living at another residence the week of March 22, but still was attending school, he said.

“Nobody knows who the person she was staying with is,” Thornton said. “I mean nobody. She told her friends she wasn’t going to tell them where she was staying because she didn’t want them to have to lie to her mom.”

Willett returned to Labbe’s house on March 29 with her bags “as if she was coming home,” Thornton said, but they had a dispute and the teenager left without any clothes, identification or money.

Police are hoping to learn with whom Willett was staying to narrow the scope of their investigation. “The feeling is, if we could identify who she was living with, we could determine what her mind-set was, what plans she may have had, what her mental and physical state was … anything that might shed light on where she is or might be, and who her potential contacts are,” Thornton said.

Willett is 5 feet 5 inches tall, 110 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing jeans and a yellow, hooded sweat shirt.

The teenager has not contacted any friends or family since she was last seen, to the police department’s knowledge, he said.

The Maine Computer Crimes Task Force is conducting a forensic review of Willett’s laptop computer, but investigators haven’t come up with any substantial clues or leads, Thornton said.

Police believe Willett left the area March 29 of her own free will.

“She could be down the street or she could be in Portland,” Thornton said. “We don’t have any strong leads and that’s why we’re appealing to the public.”

To offer information about Willett’s whereabouts, contact the Caribou Police Department at 493-3301.

The department will keep information confidential if needed.