Vermont officials issued the state's first Amber Alert on Thursday, following the disappearance of Brooke Bennett, a 12-year-old resident of Braintree, Vt. Bennett was last seen after her uncle dropped her off at the Cumberland Farms convenience store in Randolph, Vt. on the morning of June 25. She was reported to be wearing jeans, a pink sweater and white sneakers, according to a Vermont State Police press release.
Bennett had told her family she was going to meet a female friend at the store who was to accompany her to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to visit with the friend's ailing relative. Surveillance videos from Cumberland Farms, however, show Bennett leaving the store alone, Tara Thomas, public information officer for the Vermont State Police, told The Dartmouth on Saturday.
Subsequent investigation suggests that Bennett may have been seeking to meet an individual she had met online. A team of officers from the state police Computer Crime Unit is now working in conjunction with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify the individual Bennett was communicating with in the period before her disappearance, Thomas said.
Several news outlets have reported that Bennett may have met an individual through the social networking site MySpace.com. Thomas said she did not have specific information about the online communication, and added that she did not believe computer forensics would have any conclusive information available for several days.
On Thursday, an article of clothing reportedly matching what Bennett was wearing was found on the side of Vermont highway RT-65 in Brookfield, Vt. The clothing has been sent to a forensics lab for testing, and the results will likely not be available until next week, Thomas said.
The discovery of the clothing also sparked a search of the surrounding area on Thursday, which included the use of K-9 units. That effort was unsuccessful, Thomas said, as was the search of nearby Sunset Lake by the State Police Dive Team.
This weekend, police officials will focus on investigating information received through the Amber Alert and other tip lines. No new searches have been planned, Thomas said, though that decision is subject to change based on information received by the police throughout the weekend.
Thomas said the police have received "hundreds and hundreds" of tips about the disappearance.
"Every single lead that comes in obviously needs to be followed up on," she said.
The Amber Alert system, which serves to mobilize communities in the search for missing children, began in the wake of the 1996 abduction of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old from Arlington, Texas, the U.S. Department of Justice web site states. The criteria for initiating an Amber Alert vary from state to state. In 2006, there were 261 Amber Alerts.
Those with any information on the whereabouts of Bennett are advised to contact Vermont State Police.
