Bangor teen found safe in woods Mom charged with letting 14-year-old ride ATV without supervision

TOWNSHIP 34 – A Bangor teenager who had been reported missing on Wednesday evening while riding an ATV alone in the woods of northern Hancock County was found safe hours later, 15 miles away and on foot.

Rachael Fuller, 14, was found about 11:30 p.m. by other campers as she walked along a road near the First Machias Lake in western Washington County, Sgt. Ron Dunham, of the Maine Warden Service, said Thursday. Authorities were alerted about the missing girl at 7:30 p.m. and were told that she had been missing for about two hours before that, he said.

Four Maine game wardens had been searching for the girl for 21/2 hours when Fuller was found near the First Machias Lake in Western Washington County. Fuller was upset, bitten by bugs, but OK, Dunham said.

The girl was under 16, the age at which she can ride an ATV without an adult, prompting wardens to charge the girl’s mother, Allison Fuller, 32, of Bangor, with allowing unlawful operation of an ATV.

“It really never should have happened, if people just followed the law,” Dunham said. Not only did it put the daughter at risk, but also it tied up wardens in something that easily could have been avoided, he said.

“We’re holding the parent responsible,” he said.

The teenager was returning from a visit to another camp about a quarter mile away when she decided to extend her excursion, the warden said. Passing her family’s camp near Deer Laek, she kept going and became lost in the unfamiliar territory.

“She just drove, and drove and drove until she ran out of gas,” Dunham said.

She abandoned the ATV and continued on foot where the campers found her walking on the Studmill Road.