GREENWOOD – A highway crew checking a dirt road for flooding Tuesday found the car of Rosa Guilford of Paris, who was last seen Friday.

As of late Tuesday night there was still no sign of the 78-year-old woman despite a search of the area by dozens of officials and volunteers and seven trained dogs, Capt. James P. Miclon of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department said.

Miclon said the town road crew was going down Sheepskin Bog Road to see if a recently built beaver dam was causing the road to flood. The 1997 four-door, red Mercury Mystique was found unlocked in the middle of the road beyond the point where the town maintains it for winter, he said.

“She had run over some pretty bad rocks. The car wasn’t stuck,” he said.

There were no keys in it and her pocketbook was not inside, Miclon said, which is consistent with what her family told officials: She would always take them when she left the car, he said.

Guilford was last seen Friday evening when relatives visited her. Family members reported her missing at 8 a.m. Sunday when her family came to check on her.

She was last seen wearing black or jean-colored slacks, a red flannel-type shirt and brown loafers, Miclon said. It was not known if she was wearing a jacket. She is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall with gray/blonde hair about chin length.

Miclon said police officers from Norway and Paris and sheriff’s deputies were searching several camps and old buildings in the area and going door-to-door at residences Tuesday.

“Nobody remembers seeing her or the car,” he said.

The Maine Warden Service was notified at 4 p.m. and assembled about a dozen officers to begin searching the area about 5 p.m. Also assisting were 7 of 10 specially trained dogs from across the state. Members of the Greenwood Fire Department were also helping, along with volunteers.

So far though, Miclon said late Tuesday night, there had been no sign or scent of the woman. The area received a soaking rain Tuesday, which ended during the evening.

The search dogs and about a dozen wardens were going to continue through the night, he said.

The Warden Service’s special statewide team that oversees massive searches will be assembled Wednesday morning at the Woodstock Fire Station, he said. The team coordinates rescue teams, search dogs and aircraft to conduct large searches.

Sheepskin Bog Road runs off Rowe Hill Road and down toward a bog east of Twitchell Pond. Miclon described the terrain as swampy and boggy. The area searched Tuesday included a bog, land toward Twitchell Pond to the west and land toward Martin Road to the south.

“You’ve got some very steep mountainous area on one side of (the bog),” he explained. “With her physical condition, it’s believed she wouldn’t have gone up the mountain,” the captain said. However, he said the family advised that Guilford does walk about two miles every day.

Miclon said Guilford may have gone to the area because she grew up in Greenwood.

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