The FBI is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information in the case of a 14-year-old Maine teenager who was reported missing by her family in September, the agency said in a news release on Monday.
Stefanie Damron, 14, was last seen walking out of her house and into the woods on West Road in New Sweden, Maine, on Sept. 23. Her family reported her missing the next day. Anyone with information leading to Stefanie’s safe return, or the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in her disappearance, is now being offered a reward of up to $15,000, the FBI said in the statement.
“The FBI hopes this reward will incentivize anyone with information relating to Stefanie’s whereabouts to come forward. Any detail, no matter how small, could be helpful,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division.
“Stefanie’s family desperately wants to know where she is, and we are fully committed to helping our law enforcement partners exhaust every investigative resource to find her and bring her home,” Cohen said.
Stefanie was last seen wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeved blue shirt, and black Harley Davidson hiking boots, according to authorities. Homeschooled and having had limited access to social media, Stefanie is described as 5 feet in height, weighing 130 pounds with green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair.
At the Monday news conference, Maine State Police Maj. Scott Gosselin said Stefanie had not taken any kind of electronic device with her at the time of her disappearance. He added that “this behavior has not been uncommon for Stefanie”—which he said was the reason her family did not notify authorities immediately.
After Stefanie was reported missing, the FBI immediately deployed its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team, assisting the Maine State Police with the search, the agency said.
Stefanie remains missing despite authorities conducting extensive searches including a neighborhood canvas, a video search, and a grid search using canines by the Maine Warden Service and Maine State Police, the FBI said. Investigators have also conducted several interviews and followed up on leads in Maine, nationally, and in Canada.
“At this point, everything is still on the table for us, from her simply being missing, to run away, to the worst situation, because we don’t have any concrete leads or tips that have led us … in one direction or the other,” State Police Lt. Darrin Crane said at the news conference.
Anyone with information about Stefanie’s whereabouts is encouraged to call Maine State Police at 1 (800) 924-2261 or (207) 532-5400. They can also contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, their local FBI office, or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.