Exclusive: FBI, Homeland Security now involved in search for missing teen
(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
Federal investigators are now involved in the case of a missing teenager from Maine who disappeared from a group home last week after speaking with a man from Vacaville over the Internet.
Late Monday evening, Solano NewsNet confirmed that agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are now assisting local and state police in Maine and California in the case involving 15-year-old Lanie Nolan.
On Tuesday, less than 12 hours after Solano NewsNet broke the news via Twitter, a spokesperson for the Lewiston, Maine police department confirmed authorities there had enlisted the help of federal law enforcement officers.
“Lewiston police detectives and officers have been continuing work on this case and has also enlisted the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” the spokesperson said.
The FBI would typically become involved in a missing persons case when the incident involves people or matters in multiple states, according to a federal law enforcement source who spoke with Solano NewsNet on condition of anonymity.
The FBI is separate from HSI, which investigates a wider variety of domestic and foreign incidents involving the United States and its citizens. Among other things, the HSI opens cases involving immigration and customs matters, and their involvement suggests investigators are probing the possibility that Lanie traveled out of country, the source said. Lewiston, a city near Portland, is less than 100 linear miles from the shared border between the United States and Canada.
On Monday, police in Lewiston issued a request for public assistance after Lanie failed to return to a youth shelter after telling staff there that she was going for a walk. That was last Thursday, and when Lanie didn’t return, the group home’s staff called the police.
Authorities later learned that Lanie had been speaking online with a 23-year-old Vacaville resident. Police in Maine said they were investigating the possibility that the man may have picked up Lanie.
Shortly after breaking the story, Solano NewsNet learned the identity of the 23-year-old man, whose last known address is a home near Nut Tree Road and Arcadia Drive that is shared with his parents. No one answered the door when an editor visited the home yesterday, but a neighbor said the man “looked familiar” when showed a photo from one of his social media profiles.
Social media profiles reviewed by Solano NewsNet revealed the man works as a security guard in Vallejo. No one answered the phone at the business when an editor called Monday afternoon.
The man’s name has not been released by police, and Solano NewsNet is choosing not to reveal it now because doing so could jeopardize an ongoing police investigation and because the individual has not been named a criminal suspect in the case.
Lanie’s mother has since released an emotional video asking for her daughter to contact family so they know she is safe.
“I don’t know why you’ve run away, and I don’t know where you are…we just know that we need you to come home, and we definitely — I definitely — need to know that you’re safe and need to know that you’re alive,” Lanie’s mother said.
Lanie was described by authorities as a fair-complexioned white female standing 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighing 180 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a brown sweatshirt, gray pants, sneakers and eyeglasses.
Anyone with information about Lanie's whereabouts or disappearance is asked to call detectives with the Lewiston Police Department at 207-784-6421.
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