Also, it has occurred to me that we might incorporate some shadow puppets since shadows are all that remains of many of these missing people.


The Providence Journal (Rhode Island)

October 10, 2006 Tuesday
All Editions

Camper missing in R.I. - Search to resume today for Mass. woman

BYLINE: BENJAMIN N. GEDAN, Journal Staff Writer

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A-01

LENGTH: 953 words

SOUTH KINGSTOWN - Hiking through dense woodlands and boating across the sprawling Worden Pond, firefighters and police officers conducted a massive search yesterday for a woman who left her family's campsite Sunday morning and didn't return.

The police say Bonnie Fernandes, 36, of Ludlow, Mass., had bickered with her husband, Lee, before strolling off around 10:30 a.m., leaving behind her four children.

As of last night, Fernandes had not been found, said South Kingstown Police Sgt. Joel Ewing-Chow.

"We've had no new information. She hasn't been seen, spotted or heard from," Ewing-Chow said. He said police are seeking the public's help.

The search, called off at nightfall yesterday, was to resume this morning, Ewing-Chow said.
Fernandes was last seen walking briskly along nearby Ministerial Road (Route 110) around noon on Sunday, the police said. She has not been seen since.

"It's totally out of her character to just disappear," said Fernandes' mother, Roseanne Henry, 52, who drove from Holyoke, Mass., late Sunday to search for her daughter.

The police learned of the disappearance at 5:30 p.m., when Lee Fernandes flagged down a patrolman near the Worden Pond Family Campground, where the Fernandes family had leased a campsite across from the pond, according to Police Capt. Jeffrey Allen.

"She had been gone a considerable amount of time," Allen said yesterday. "She had a good leg up on us."

Fernandes had packed a cooler and her children's clothing in the family trailer before leaving for a walk, Henry said. Her husband spent the day packing up the family's trailer and watching the couple's four children, identified by Henry as Brandon, 1, Melissa, 4, Nicholas, 6, and Justin, 15.

Bonnie Fernandes walked off without money, credit cards or a cellular phone, Allen said. She had no friends or relatives in the area or access to any vehicle, he said. She is descrbed as 5 feet, 2 inches tall, 150 punds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a brown sweatshirt and blue jeans, according to a police statement.

Sunday evening, the police joined 12 members of the campground staff and searched the 212-acre grounds, riding golf carts and all-terrain vehicles. The search party scoured the 200 campsites, as well as the walking trails and bicycle paths, said Christa Crossman, the campground manager.

The search expanded dramatically yesterday morning. As the police visited local beaches and patrolled Ministerial Road, volunteer firefighters boarded motor boats and circled Worden Pond.
The police activated phone alerts through "A Child Is Missing," a system similar to an Amber Alert that helps search for missing children or adults, according to Ewing-Chow, of South Kingstown police.

That system "rings every phone in the immediate area" and provides recorded information on the missing person, Ewing-Chow said.

The Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency set up a mobile command center at the Tuckertown fire station on Ministerial Road, 11?2 miles north of where Fernandes was last seen.
At the station, state police troopers and South Kingstown police coordinated the search, as a helicopter from the Rhode Island Airport Corporation roared overhead.

"We've been searching the roads, the fields, the woods," said Bob Perry, chief of the Union Fire District.

By late afternoon, more than 80 firefighters from the town's nine stations had joined the effort, many forming so-called "bump lines" as they marched through the woods, shoulder to shoulder.
Firefighters also visited more than 200 homes in the area, said Kevin Quinn, deputy chief of the Union Fire District.

"It was pretty tough," said firefighter Nathan Street, 23, taking a spoonful of hot stew at the command headquarters. "It was very thick, dense foliage."

The campground is bordered by major roads dotted with houses. Cynthia Tucker, a part-owner of the campground, said no camper has gone missing in the 50 years she has operated the facility.

But the 40 acres of campsites, leased from May 1 to Oct. 15, are surrounded by deep woods crisscrossed by unmarked paths designed for horses, snowmobiles and ATVs.
Even in the day, Tucker said, it is easy to get lost amid the trees, swamps and impenetrable patches of brier. "A lot of people panic when they feel they're lost," she said. "They don't turn and come back where they came from."

This is the first season the Fernandes family has leased a campsite, according to Crossman, the campground manager.

In a photo the police made available to the media, Fernandes is seen standing with two of her children, smiling in a room with floral wallpaper.

Henry, her mother, said Fernandes and her husband have a strong relationship. She said it was unlikely that her daughter had vanished purposefully. (Lee Fernandes was secluded in the campground with his children yesterday. He asked campground staff not to admit visitors.)
"They have a good, stable marriage," Henry said yesterday. "[Sunday] night we were driving around, just yelling for her."

The South Kingstown police are asking anyone with information about Fernandes to call the department at (401) 783-3321.

Staff writer Karen Lee Ziner contributed to this report.
bgedan@projo.com / (401) 277-8072
Keith Maine, a volunteer with the South Kingstown Forest Fire Department, and others, search the woods along Route 110 yesterday for Bonnie Fernandes, of Ludlow, Mass., who left the Worden Pond Family Campground Sunday morning.

JOURNAL PHOTO / GRETCHEN ERTL
South Kingstown police Capt. Jeff Allen holds a photo of Bonnie Fernandes yesterday. The search for the Ludlow, Mass., woman expanded dramatically yesterday with the addition of volunteer firefighters on motorboats and the activation of a phone alert system.
JOURNAL PHOTO / GRETCHEN ERTL

LOAD-DATE: October 12, 2006

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper


Copyright 2006 Providence Publications, LLC