N.H. girl still missing, FBI offers $25K reward
STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. - The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an 11-year-old northern New Hampshire girl who's been missing for five days.
FBI agent Kieran Ramsey said at a Saturday afternoon news conference that the reward would also cover information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone responsible for Celina Cass' disappearance.
Jane Young of the state attorney general's office says a community member was adding a $5,000 reward.
Celina was last seen Monday night at her home computer in Stewartstown. Investigators have knocked on about 300 doors in the area and in neighboring Vermont, with plans to continue.
Police have said there is no indication Celina ran away or that someone took her.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was asked to assist in mapping the locations of sex offenders in the area and sent a representative. Ernie Allen, the center's president, said investigators are likely working on several different theories simultaneously and ruling them out one by one.
Several areas of concern are the girl's young age, which makes it unlikely that she'd run away, the fact she was had been using a computer before she disappeared and the close proximity of the Canadian border, Allen said.
Across the border, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province of Quebec were alerted to the girl's disappearance, but there had been no sightings as of late Thursday afternoon, said Sgt. John Sparkes, an RCMP investigator in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
The specter of the girl's disappearance has hung heavy over Stewartstown, a community of 800 residents with one blinking streetlight and a handful of stores.
Debbie Whelan, who dialed 911 after Celina's older sister Kayla went to her house looking for the missing girl Tuesday morning, said community residents continue to pray for her return even as unsettling thoughts enter their minds.
Anyone with information is asked to call the state police at 603-846-3333.