Police Chief: No Link Yet Between Car and Missing Colorado Girl

Portsmouth Police located a blue Buick station wagon with Colorado plates in a parking lot off Constitution Avenue this morning that matched the description provided by authorities investigating the case of a missing Colorado girl.

Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen DuBois said the department received a tip from Dexter, Maine, Police a few days ago that the vehicle sought by federal authorities was seen by a witness at a convenience store and one of the occupants was a young girl.

On Thursday morning, DuBois said police located the vehicle in a parking area of the Portsmouth Industrial Park behind the Wal-Mart on Lafayette Road. A search of the vehicle and the immediate was conducted and the vehicle was later towed from the scene to the Portsmouth Police garage, he said.

"We believe, with a high degree of certainty, it is the vehicle that came out of Maine," DuBois said. "We're working with the feds on what the next step may be."

DuBois said no link between the vehicle that was towed to the police station and the case of a missing named Jessica Ridgeway, 10, of Westminster, Colo., has been established yet.

According to an Associated Press story, Ridgeway was reported missing by her parents on Oct. 5. The girl's mother told police that she last saw her daughter walking to school.

WMUR reported Thursday that a witness told Dexter, Maine, Police they saw two people, including a young girl that looked like Ridgeway, sitting inside the vehicle on Sunday.

DuBois said several law enforcement agencies, including the Dexter, Maine Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westminster, Colo., Police Department will investigate the impounded vehicle at the Portsmouth Police station garage for potential evidence.

"So now we have the vehicle, but we don't have the people" who were reported inside of it in Maine, DuBois said.