ROCKPORT — Two 13-year-old girls — reported missing after they apparently walked away from Rockport Middle School after being dropped off by their parents there by their parents yesterday morning — were found today in Gloucester following extensive air and ground search efforts by state and local authorities.
School officials had reported Zandra Eason and Pamela Lawrence missing to Rockport Police at 8:43 a.m. Monday. Police immediately began searching for the seventh-graders, who had been last seen walking toward South Street on Monday.
As police searched for the girls later yesterday, last night and into this morning, clues to their disappearance came streaming into police headquarters.
According to Police Chief Tom McCarthy, notes relative to their disappearance were found in their friends' lockers and the family of one of the girls told police they had found a list of camping supplies and noticed that a tent and air mattress were missing.
"At that point, it became apparent they were camping out," McCarthy said.
Police tried to track the girls' cell phones using a global position system, but the devices could not be located as they had been turned off, police said.
This morning, police set up an incident command center and were assisted in the search by Gloucester, Manchester, Essex and State police as well as Rockport Fire and Forest Fire officials.
McCarthy and State Police officials had been searching the South woods area by helicopter when word came that the girls had reportedly taken a Cape Ann Transportation Authority bus to the American Legion building in downtown Gloucester. A second command post was immediately set up in the area of Stage Fort Park.
It was at that point that Lawrence's father found his daughter, Pamela, at the Cupboard of Gloucester; the father took the girl home to Rockport where she was interviewed by McCarthy and Police Sgt. Timothy Frithsen.
Lawrence agreed to show her father where her friend, Eason, was staying, police said.
Meanwhile, Eason, noticing increased police presence in Gloucester, fled the girls' makeshift overnight camp site near Buswell Pond but was soon spotted at the Lone Gull coffee house on Main Street.
Gloucester police received calls that there was a girl at the coffee shop who appeared to be disoriented. When police arrived, the girl claimed to be from Russia, saying she spoke no English. Officials requested an ambulance take the girl to Addison Gilbert Hospital. It was at the hospital where Eason's stepfather, Michael Ferrante, was able to positively identify his stepdaughter. Eason underwent a psychological evaluation while at the hospital, police said.
Police said there was no police history with either family, and that the girls' reasons for fleeing are still unclear at this time.
For full coverage of this story, look to tomorrow's print edition of the Gloucester Daily Times.
Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.
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