WARREN, Mass. (AP) – A headband found by a woman fishing in the Quaboag River is being tested for DNA to determine if it belonged to missing lifeguard Molly Bish.

Worcester District Attorney John Conte said human hair was found along with the headband, which was badly deteriorated.

Bish’s parents, John and Magdalen Bish, said their daughter was wearing a scrunchie-type headband used to tie her hair in a pony tail the day she disappeared three years ago.

“We’re not certain that this is hers, but she did have one on,” John Bish said.

Conte would not describe the color of the headband or the hair, or identify who found it. But state police Col. Thomas Foley said a woman fishing in the river reeled it in earlier this week and brought it to police on Friday.

Foley said he didn’t know when results of the testing for DNA would be known.

“We’re trying to put everything on the fast track,” Foley said, adding that the amount of time the headband was exposed to the elements has made testing difficult.

Magdalen Bish, who was wearing a button with her daughter’s picture, said the possible discovery of new evidence has brought back feelings of fear and dread about what happened to her daughter, who was 16-years-old when she disappeared.

“You know something bad happened, you want an end, but you’re afraid of the end,” Magdalen Bish said. “It’s like you have three doors; you don’t know which of them to pick and none of them are a good one.”

Divers searched a half-mile stretch of the Quaboag River in Warren for additional evidence for about six hours Saturday. A further search of the river was not planned, Conte said.

Conte said the key to the investigation remains a bathing suit found in a wooded area in Palmer six months ago and given to police two weeks ago.

Parts of that bathing suit, which fits the description of one worn by Molly Bish the day she disappeared on June 27, 2000, are still being tested at the state crime lab in Sudbury and at a private lab in Springfield, Va., Conte said.

The discovery of the swimsuit triggered a search of the woods near the Palmer-Ware line where it was found. A search of those woods was scheduled to continue Tuesday.

“It seems too coincidental for (the bathing suit) to be so close to our home, the same color and design, for it not to be Molly’s bathing suit,” John Bish said. He said it was the only real indication so far of what might have happened to her.

Bish vanished as she was preparing for her morning lifeguard duty. When swimmers arrived at the beach, only her lunch, water bottle, radio and sandals were there. Her first-aid kit was open.

“Three years is approaching, and it’s an awful long time to do this,” Magdalen Bish said, her voice shaking.

“And we know Molly needs to come home, as difficult as that will be for us.”

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