Search for missing toddler hits 1-month mark

FORT FAIRFIELD – It wasn’t frustration that crews were feeling as the search for a missing toddler reached the one-month mark yesterday.

It was a sense of not being able to do more as they waited for their search efforts to pay off, Sgt. Tom Ward, of the Maine Warden Service, said Friday.

“This is weighing pretty hard on us,” Ward said. “We’d just like to put some closure to it for everybody.”

Crews have been on the Aroostook River every day since April 25 when 3-year-old Alexandria Winship-Wright was reported missing.

Police believe the toddler may have been swept into the fast-moving river and drowned. So far, the only trace police have found of the little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl since she went missing is her pink winter boots.

In the last week, wardens have been using a new dragging system – which Ward likened to a scallop trawl – to search the river. Crews dragged the river for two days, which Ward said worked well in some places, but not in others where rocks and the formation at the bottom of the river caused problems.

On top of that special search effort, Ward said, a boat has been on the river every day and crews have been conducting ground, water and air searches when they can. Wardens are searching about a five-mile stretch of the river, from the Route 1A bridge in Fort Fairfield to Tinker Dam in New Brunswick. Ward said the Canadian government has been cooperative in letting wardens cross the border on the river for the searches. He said officials wanted to get a good look at all the riverbanks before the foliage comes out. He added that officials at the dam also have been raking their grates every two to three days to help in the search.

While the river level and the water flow have dropped, officials are hoping for a break in the case as the water temperature continues to rise.

“Every day since this started, we’ve had guys on the river to some degree,” Ward said. “We’re looking for some closure on this. But we’re going every day and doing our thing. Hopefully, like I’ve said a hundred times before, we’ll catch a break here.”

Crews have turned up nothing since the first day of the search. The girl’s mother, Mandy Wright, told search officials that she stepped away to use the bathroom and when she returned, the sliding glass door at the back of her apartment was open and her daughter was gone.

Police believe the little girl trudged to the Aroostook River, which is located about 50 yards from her back door, and went into the water near the Route 1A bridge. Soon into the search, crews found one of the toddler’s boots along the riverbank about 200 yards from where they believe she went into the water. Five hours later, they located her second boot floating in the middle of the river about a mile from the apartment.

Though weeks have gone by, Ward said, he knows the little girl is on the minds of many in the community.

Ward is asked about the case wherever he goes, even when he’s at elementary schools doing presentations about being a game warden. He said a girl in second grade came up to him after he spoke at a Presque Isle school and wanted to know whether they’d found Alexandria yet.

“That tells me there’s lots of discussion in town about this. The whole thing is just a sad deal, that’s for sure,” Ward said. “We haven’t found her yet, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying.”