County tot who drowned to be buried

FORT FAIRFIELD – A 3-year-old girl who apparently drowned in the Aroostook River after she was discovered missing on April 25 will be laid to rest in a private graveside service Friday.

Alexandria Lynn Winship-Wright, a blond-haired, blue-eyed toddler who was missing for eight weeks before she was found at Tinker Dam in New Brunswick, will be buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Fort Fairfield. The community will have the opportunity to pay their respects during calling hours from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home on Main Street in Fort Fairfield.

While police have not received an official autopsy report, Patrol Detective Stan Nicholson of the Fort Fairfield Police Department said Wednesday that he attended the autopsy last month in Canada. Nicholson said the doctor ruled out foul play in the toddler’s death, but “deduced that the death was inconclusive or indeterminable.”

Winship-Wright was reported missing in late April. Her mother, Mandy Wright, told police that she left her daughter unattended only briefly and that when she returned, the girl was gone and the back door of the apartment was open.

A massive search began immediately, lasting eight weeks and involving planes, helicopters, ATVs, boats and divers, as well as countless ground searchers, who scoured the Aroostook River and its banks from Fort Fairfield to Tinker Dam.

In late June a high-resolution digital photograph showed an unexplainable, tiny blue dot that led searchers to a concrete ledge at Tinker Dam, which is where the little girl’s body was found.

Nicholson said the investigation was ongoing and that there were no charges pending. He said that if any charges were to be made in the case, they would be based on a decision by the district attorney.

With the burial service nearing, Nicholson said that many in town are feeling like a chapter is closing on this story.

“I think there is some closure going to be felt from it [the service],” Nicholson said. “I get a general sense from the community that they’re anxious for it. I think a lot of people just want to forget the whole ordeal, but it’s still in the back of everyone’s mind.”

Alexandria Winship-Wright is survived by her mother, her father, Lee Winship, two sisters, Whitney M. MacIntosh and Cassidy D. Parady, and grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.