State Police concluded a search of a wooded area near the New York/Pennsylvania border Tuesday in relation to a 2008 missing persons case involving Corrie Anderson.
Troopers tell 7 Eyewitness News that they have 50 officers searching an area off Kortwright Road in the Town of Busti, where Corrie Anderson’s vehicle was found when she went missing. The picture with this story of the police cars lined up at the staging area is courtesy of Chaucat.com.
The 36-year-old mother of three went missing on October 28, 2008 after leaving her job in the afternoon at the Lake County Dodge dealership on Washington Street in Jamestown. She missed a meeting a few hours later and never picked up her son from school.
Anderson was one of three cold cases 7 Eyewitness News reporter Hannah Buehler profiled last year
Her dark blue 2005 Dodge Caravan was found two days later. It had been abandoned off Kortwright Road in the Town of Busti.
State Police say that this is an open case and they are not working on a specific tip, but rather trying to rule out tips they have received over the years. Police also say this is the best time of year to conduct a search.
Police used K9s, bloodhounds and sophisticated DNA equipment during the search. A spokesperson said whatever was collected in the woods during the search would be taken back to the lab for testing, to see if it relates to the Anderson case.
Here is the press release issued by State Police:
7 Eyewitness News spoke with the family of Corrie Anderson Tuesday. Her daughter, who was just shy of her 14th birthday when her mother went missing, says she will never give up hope, but she has come to cope with the fact that her mother is gone.
"I've put myself at peace with it and I don't want to be all hurt again like the eight years just happened," said Shannon Hillerby, who is now 22. "If we do get answers that would be absolutely wonderful, but at the same time I don't want them to be answers that hurt me ever harder."
Corrie's mother Vicki has never given up. She says she will not be able to rest until she knows what happened to her daughter.
"I have peace about Corrie but I really would like the answers," said Vicki Aquisto. "Maybe I'll never know, but I will still always look for things that I know she had that are still missing."
Family members say they were informed Monday night that a search would be taking place Tuesday. Aquisto says that phone call from police brought back a lot of feelings and memories of eight years ago.
If you have any information, call State Police at 716-665-3113.
