Medway man still missing

MEDWAY – Relatives and friends of a town man missing almost six days continued searching for him Monday, hoping he is on an unannounced trip but fearing he is an accident or suicide victim.

Depending on who was reporting it, Carroll Lyons Jr., 47, last was seen since Wednesday or Thursday walking or standing on Route 116 near Mud Brook Road or catching a ride there, state police and game wardens said Monday.

The inexact nature of the reports of Lyons’ activities just before his disappearance, plus the failure to find him, left everyone frustrated. Game wardens worked the Penobscot River, search flights were flown along the river, and about 25 searchers combed the roughly 3.5 miles of woods between his tiny wood cabin at 2 JR Mack Road, Interstate 95 and Stump Hill.

“He could be in Boston, in California or in Jacksonville, Florida, right now,” Lt. Pat Dorian of the Maine Warden Service said Monday. “He could be in the river or in the woods. We just don’t know.

“Some family members are disappointed that we’re not out here today in great force, but for us to be involved in great numbers we would need to know where he actually was last,” Dorian added. “If there was a specific claim [about Lyons’ location or last activities] that would put us in a specific place, we would be there searching.”

State police detectives who were involved since Friday have, except for report-writing, all but stopped investigating, said state police Sgt. Steve Pickering of the Criminal Investigation Division in Bangor.

“We don’t have any reason to believe that there is foul play,” Pickering said Monday.

Reports that he was involved in a shooting or warning-shot incident with another town man have failed to produce evidence of a crime, Pickering said.

Police have interviewed the man, whom they declined to identify, several times.

Police who searched the cabin and surrounding woods Friday and Saturday believe the 26 bullet holes riddling the exterior of Lyons’ cabin came from Lyons’ shotgun and were put there by Lyons, possibly as a prelude to a suicide attempt, from inside. Some of the holes apparently were patched by him.

Police and Lyons’ sister Diane Lyons-Segee ask anyone with knowledge of Lyons to call 866-2121, (800) 432-7381 or 746-3555. All calls will be kept confidential, police said.

“We hope that people who might have seen him last week will let us know,” Lyons-Segee said.

She doubted her older brother committed suicide and hoped that this possibility wouldn’t stop people from looking for him or reporting where they last saw him.

“He’s a very warm, family-oriented and generous man, generous to a fault,” she said of the man she described as a doting, fun-loving grandfather and hard-working woodsman. He has suffered from an alcohol problem, but the number of people who have helped search for him or provided food or other help – about 125 since Friday – shows that Lyons is of good character and well-regarded, Lyons-Segee said.

Searchers started looking at 5 a.m. Monday and were out until dusk.

“You don’t get people to show up or take time out of their hunting season to help for someone who is mean or rotten,” she said. “Their help is so appreciated, you can’t imagine.”

Still, disturbing signs besides the bullet holes fill Lyons-Segee with a sense of dread. Her brother’s dog, a mixed-breed named Dog, showed up Thursday. Lyons went everywhere with the dog and wouldn’t just leave him behind, she said.

Searches will continue today, with Weldon Dam remaining closed to allow river levels below it to drop.