Search for missing woman to continue

PRESQUE ISLE – Clad in bluejeans, a white T-shirt and matching sneakers, Tela Hart set out on foot in the early morning hours of Oct. 9 and headed home from a Lenfest Street party.

She never got there.

No one has come in contact with her since she was last seen between 3 and 4 a.m. that Sunday morning. She has not called home, nor has she been located in a hospital. There has been no activity on her credit cards.

Despite the troubling signs, Presque Isle police Detective Wayne Selfridge said this weekend that he expected the search for the missing woman to continue this week.

The Presque Isle Stream and surrounding area continue to be a major focal point of the investigation. After the Presque Isle Police Department’s bloodhound, Hunter, tracked Hart’s steps to the waterway, the department launched a massive manhunt for the 42-year-old woman.

The stream is approximately a block away from Lenfest Street.

The search has included local law enforcement, the Maine Warden Service, the U.S. Border Patrol and a host of friends, family members and volunteers.

Crews from North Star Search and Rescue also have been combing the area for any sign of the woman, who police believe was intoxicated when she left the party.

“We were out in the boat again on Friday searching, and we are planning another search in the next few days,” he said. “No decision has been made yet about when to stop searching. As long as the weather cooperates, we plan to keep on looking for her.”

The detective recalled that he couldn’t remember a time when he had seen the water in the stream as high as it was when Hart vanished.

Divers with the Warden Service searched the mucky bottom of the waterway late last month.

A Warden Service plane also has been in the air searching the woods along the stream for signs of Hart, and Selfridge accompanied the U.S. Border Patrol late last month as they flew the entire length of the stream and the surrounding area.

At this point, police are still unsure if Hart turned around and headed in a different direction when she reached the stream, attempted to cross the waterway or proceeded elsewhere.

Despite the time that has passed, Selfridge said that police are “still hoping for the best.”

“Everything about this is so out of character for her [Hart],” he acknowledged. “We were told that she has never been without family contact for longer than two or three days at the most, wherever she has been … She would not have just left.”

Police have said that family members told them Hart had “some mental issues,” but they said she had exhibited no suicidal tendencies before her disappearance.

Hart is described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds. She has blond hair and hazel eyes.

Police ask that anyone who has seen Hart, or knows where she is, contact the Presque Isle Police Department at 764-4476.