WEST STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. -- Nearly 48 hours after the parents of 11-year-old Celina Cass last saw their daughter, an air and ground search for the West Stewartstown girl has ended, and the FBI has joined the investigation.

By Wednesday evening, the Cass house was blocked off with police tape, and investigators were inside the home. Moments before that happened, two people under a blanket were led by friends out of the home and taken to a nearby police command center.

Friends and relatives spent the day putting up missing person posters across the area with pictures and a description of Celina.


"We're putting them everywhere," said Lori McKearney, the girl's aunt. "We have people going to Lancaster, Jefferson, Whitefield, Littleton. We're going to Pittsburg."

The girl was in her room Monday night, but by the morning, she was gone.

Crews searched the Connecticut River on Wednesday while a helicopter scanned the ground from above. The river is a short distance from the Cass home, but searchers found no sign of the girl.

"We really want to know that she's OK and that she's safe," said family friend Amanda Chapple. "We need her home."

Counselors were on hand at Celina's school. Superintendent Robert Mills said she was well-liked at the tight-knit school that has only 85 students.



"We have about six counselors on site, and we've contacted students and their parents to have them come up to the school, so any students who need to talk through some of the issues can come here, and we will have counselors available for them," Mills said.

The FBI has volunteered to help in the search for Celina, deploying its its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team. Investigators are also focusing attention on her computer, and the attorney general's office met with the girl's family.

The attorney general's office said they are looking for any information on Celina's activities on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Police said they are also taking a look at phone records.

Police said Cass is 5 feet 5 inches tall and 95 pounds, with brown, waist-length hair and hazel eyes. She was last wearing a pink shirt, pink pullover, blue shorts and shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call state police at 603-846-3333.

Read more: http://www.wmur.com/news/28679347/detail.html#ixzz1TMGP3C00

Wow, they invite the FBI in 48 hours after the girl went missing, not good. The first 24 hours are what count and bringing the BAU in means they are stuck.

Authorities are examining "every facet" of missing 11-year-old Celina Cass' life, including computer records on the girl's home computer, the New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General tells FoxNews.com.

Celina, whom friends describe as sweet and reliable, was last seen by a family member Monday night at her home in Stewartstown, N.H., a small town near the Canadian border. She was reported missing Tuesday morning and those who know the child say it's unlikely she ran away.


Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young told FoxNews.com that the investigation is being treated as a missing person case.

"At this time, she is a missing child," Young said. "We're looking at all facets of her life."

FBI child abduction specialists as well as the New Hampshire and Vermont State Police and U.S. Border Patrol scoured fields, woods and the Connecticut River on Thursday for any sign of the girl, according to local reports.

Police have said that there's no indication Celina ran away or that someone took her, and there are no signs of a struggle.

Young said Thursday that authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because the case did not meet the criteria for one. Amber Alerts usually require a description of a vehicle or person the child was last with, Young said.

A flurry of activity was seen Thursday in and around the three-story house where Celina lives with her mother and stepfather. The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that state police detectives wrapped the driveway of the girl's home in yellow tape on Wednesday.

The FBI, meanwhile, said it had enlisted a four- to six-person "child abduction rapid deployment team" to pitch in. Young told FoxNews.com that the FBI had sent agents as far away as New York and Virginia to assist in the search. She also said law enforcement is canvassing "every house" in the neighborhood and "talking to everyone."

"She never went anywhere without her mom or sister," said family friend Rebecca Goodrum, 30, fighting back tears and holding a lit candle Wednesday night at a vigil held in a park in neighboring Canaan, Vt., about a half-mile from the girl's home.

"She is very shy," said Kayla Baglio, 18, who knows her, too. "If she doesn't know you, she'd look at her sister to see if it was OK to talk to you."

Celina's friend, 11-year-old Makayla Riendeau, described the girl as very athletic and a stickler about getting her school work done on time.

"She's a very good friend, and she never lets anybody down," Makayla said.

At midday Wednesday, about a mile north of town, five officers with the U.S. Fish and Game Department searched the woods behind an apartment building. They carried bags and boxes, but it was unclear if they collected anything.

Plainclothes police officers wearing purple rubber gloves were also seen surrounding a red pickup that was parked across the street from the girl's home, photographing it and looking inside. When news cameras began shooting pictures of what was happening, troopers moved a cruiser and a New Hampshire State Police SUV in front of the scene, to block the cameras.

The girl's disappearance hung heavy over Stewartstown, a community of 800 residents with one blinking streetlight and a handful of stores. Friends posted fliers of the girl on trees, utility poles, storefronts and car windows, and stood along the street in front of her house, waving motorists down to hand them copies.

"It's creepy," said Shannon Towle, who owns Towle's Mini-Mart on Route 3. "Things like this don't happen here. I know that's kind of a tired phrase. I'm an overprotective mom as it is. Now it's going to be way worse."

After sunset on Wednesday, about 80 people -- many with candles in hand and tears in their eyes -- gathered for the nighttime vigil. A framed picture of the girl sat on a picnic table, surrounded by candles. Friends, classmates and even people who didn't know Celina were among those in the crowd, and young children sobbed as adults comforted them.

Goodrum, of nearby Beecher Falls, Vt., said she was praying that Celina, whom she's known since she was 2, is safe.

"She was beautiful," said Goodrum. "She was the light of everything."

Towle said her 13-year-old daughter, Echo Towle, asked her mother whether she thought Celina was still alive.

"How do I answer that question? And do I want to?" Towle said. "I don't want to think about it, but I pray every second that she is.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/27/search-for-missing-new-hampshire-girl-focuses-on-connecticut-river/#ixzz1TTKBw3Nq