Investigators searched a property in Barrington, New Hampshire, on Wednesday in connection with a decade-old missing persons case.
A spokesman for the Essex District Attorney said detectives from their office, Lynn police and New Hampshire State Police were conducting a search as part of a search for Leeanne Redden, last seen 11 years ago in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Authorities say Redden was last seen on April 15, 2013 — the day of the Boston Marathon bombings — in the area of Evans Lane.
"I hope that she'd be alive, but the realist in me says no," said her sister, Amy Robinson. "I think she's on the other side trying to let us know what happened, to try to find her, and bring her home for peace."
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She was 37 at the time she was last seen by her family, a day before the attacks in Boston.
"Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker would like to thank the New Hampshire State Police and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office for their invaluable assistance," the district attorney's office said in a statement. "We recognize the losses suffered by families with missing loved ones and want them to know that they are not forgotten. Our office is committed to reexamining old cases and acting on any new leads."
Police were searching a private property off Small Road on Ayers Pond. Numerous police vehicles were spotted at the scene. The DA's office confirmed late Wednesday afternoon that no remains were found. The search is complete and investigators will not be returning to the property.
The district attorney's office would not say what led investigators to the New Hampshire property, but family members say Redden's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance once lived at the site.
That boyfriend has since died.
"We're hopeful that more things will come from this and this is just the beginning, and hopefully, we can get some answers and some closure for our family and find out what happened to our sister," said Robinson.
Redden's family wonders if her struggle with addiction, along with the intense focus on the Boston marathon bombing investigation at the time of her disappearance, may have led to her case not getting enough attention.
Redden's case remains unsolved. She is described as 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, with curly black hair and blue eyes. She has a tattoo of a cross with the words "Forgive Me Father" on her upper back, a sunflower tattoo on her lower back, and a tattoo of a cross on the middle finger of her left hand.
