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'All-out search' for 'very shy' NH girl missing for days

Police on Friday went door-to-door in an "all-out search" for a missing 11-year-old girl in a small New Hampshire town near the Canadian border.
/ Source: NBC News and msnbc.com

Police on Friday went door-to-door in an "all-out search" for a missing 11-year-old girl in a small New Hampshire town near the Canadian border.

Celina Cass was last seen 9 p.m. Monday using a computer at her home in Stewartstown, which has a population of about 800.

The FBI has deployed its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team to help in the search.

On Friday evening, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young told a news conference there no new details on Celina's whereabouts.

"Day five and we just continue to look for her with all available assets," Young said.

Jeanine Brady, a family friend, pleaded for the girl's safe return. "Pray that our little girl comes home soon," she said

Image:
New Hampshire State Police officers watch as a woman identified by the NH Attorney General's office as Celina Cass's mother, under blanket, is escorted from the family home in Stewartstown, N.H., Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Cass, 11, has been reported missing since she was last seen at her home on Monday evening a few miles from the area they were searching. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)Charles Krupa / AP

On Thursday, school nurse Kirsten Lyons spoke at a media briefing on behalf of the Cass family.

"All of you can kiss your kids goodnight tonight or tomorrow or when you see them again," she said. "We don't know if we're going to be able to do that with Celina. This community wants her home."

Casey Jordan, a criminologist at Western Connecticut State University, told TODAY that investigators would examine computer records in the hope of finding a clue.

"Was she on chatrooms, was she on Facebook, was she corresponding with strangers?" she said.

Stepfather arrested in 2003
According to reports, the search operation was extending into Vermont and across the border into Canada, just a mile away.

ABC's "Nightline" reported Thursday night that the girl's stepfather, Wendell Noyes, had been arrested in 2003 for threatening an ex-girlfriend. He was subsequently involuntarily committed to a mental institution and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nightline said Noyes refused to comment.

The Union Leader newspaper of Manchester said that more than 100 investigators were involved in the search Thursday, a four-fold increase on the number of people involved Wednesday.

Image: Lori McKearney, Kaylin Pettit
Lori McKearney, of Lancaster, N.H., right, and Kaylin Pettit, of Stewartstown, N.H., post missing posters for 11-year-old Celina Cass in Colebrook, N.H., Wednesday, July 28, 2011. Cass has been reported missing since she was last seen at her home on Monday evening. McKearney is Celina Cass's aunt. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)Charles Krupa / AP

Young said roughly 225 tips had been received, and they were being followed up as soon as possible.

Constance McKearney, of Jefferson, who is related to the Cass family, told the Union Leader that the community was trying to help.

"It's a small town and small area," McKearney told the paper. "Everyone grows up here together and everyone does what they can do to help."

One teenager who knows Celina described her as not the sort of person to go off with a stranger, New Hampshire Public Radio reported.

"She was very shy. If she didn't know you, she would look to her older sister to make sure you were okay," Kayla Baglio, 18, said.