CHINA, Maine — Searchers looking for a missing teenager Monday night found snowmobile tracks leading into the open waters of the west cove of China Lake, according to the Maine Warden Service.
Richard “Shaw” Jackson, 18, an Erskine Academy junior, has been missing since Friday night. More than a dozen wardens, other law enforcement officials and volunteers from the community and 13 area snowmobile clubs have been looking for him since Saturday morning.
“We’re not certain those are his tracks near the cove,” Col. Joel Wilkinson of the warden service said Tuesday in a press release. “But this is an area of concern and we are putting resources there, and we are continuing to search in other areas as well.”
Agency spokeswoman Deborah Turcotte stressed Tuesday evening that it is still a search for a missing person.
“We need to continue our search on the trails,” she said.
Wardens had not yet been able to get sonar gear to the site for an underwater search of the lake, which has deep water, Turcotte said.
Jackson last was seen between 8 and 9 p.m. Friday heading back to his home from Pinkham Fuel, where he had work done on his black Yamaha snowmobile, according to the press release.
Wardens searching Tuesday used airboats, snowmobiles and an airplane to look for Jackson before stopping for the night.
“Of course, the snowmobile clubs have been very generous,” Turcotte said. “People are just stepping up and helping out.”
Although wardens have interviewed family members as to Jackson’s whereabouts, there is still no indication of which way he might have gone, Turcotte said.
By Tuesday night, a group called “Help find Richard ‘Shaw’ Jackson” on the social networking Web site Facebook had more than 1,048 members.
Anyone who may have seen Jackson after 9 p.m. Friday is asked to call the Maine State Police in Augusta at 624-7076.
Jim's comment: "I hope this young man is found. To all our winter visitors, PLEASE BE CAREFULL in your winter activities. Mother Nature demands your respect."
