Gloucester Police And Coast Guard Search For Missing Woman Abbie Flynn

GLOUCESTER (CBS) – Gloucester Police and the U.S. Coast Guard are looking for help in their search for a missing woman. Fifty-nine-year-old Abbie Flynn has brown hair and was believed to be wearing a red jacket.

Flynn was last heard from around 4 p.m. Sunday when she spoke with her son and mentioned she might go for a walk. "Abbie is known to be an avid hiker, she is a wildlife enthusiast," Gloucester Police Chief Edward Conley told reporters in a news conference Monday.

He added, "The guests arrived for her Super Bowl party about 6 o'clock [Sunday] afternoon and she was not at home. There was indication that she had been home, that she had prepared for the party, but she was not there. When she didn't arrive after a little while, they called the Gloucester Police Department and reported her missing."

Although the ground and water searches were suspended Monday evening, the case remains an active investigation.

Conley said it was too early to rule out any possibilities, including foul play, but police are "working primarily under the theory that she did what she said she was going to do which was take a walk, go for a walk and perhaps either got lost or had a medical incident or something that incapacitated her and she hopefully is hunkered down somewhere and we just have to find her."

More than 80 officers were involved in the search, checking around homes in the Farrington Street and Saint Louis Ave area. "It's thickly wooded, there is a lot of briar brush, but there are also a lot of trail networks through this area. Trail networks, which we understand Abbie was very familiar with," said Conley.

The Coast Guard used planes with highly sensitive camera equipment and thermal imaging as well as 47-foot boats to search near Brace Cove, an area Flynn is known to visit.

Gloucester resident Iain Kerr used his business's two drones to help find Flynn. "We can fly the drones quite low. We have really good high definition cameras on the drones so we can just look straight down into the woods and see if we can see anything," he said.

"She did not have her cell phone when she left. Her cell phone has been located and it's in the custody of the Gloucester Police Department. We have indication that she may have taken a jacket when she left," Conley said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Gloucester Police at 978-283-1212.

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• Mike LaCrosse