ADDISON (AP) – The Maine state police and warden service on Saturday recovered the body of a young woman from the Pleasant River near a boat launch.

State public safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said authorities planned to conduct an autopsy in Augusta and seek to make a positive identification.

A search for Krystal Higgins of Columbia had been under way in the area. Divers looked unsuccessfully for the 17-year-old’s body Friday.

Higgins was last seen leaving a friend’s house in Columbia Falls last Saturday night, saying she was headed home. Her car was found Thursday submerged off the Addison boat launch.

State Police Lt. Dennis Appleton the young woman may have tried to visit a male friend she had a crush on who lived not far from the landing. She had tried calling him a couple times on her cell phone after midnight the night she disappeared.

Appleton said the car windows were rolled two-thirds down, indicating that Higgins may have been trying to escape.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers and volunteers searched the area around Columbia Falls after Higgins’ disappearance. Friday’s search of the river was hampered by strong winds and heavy rains. Some of the divers said they could barely see beyond the beams of light they flashed.

About five state police detectives conducted interviews in Addison and neighboring towns, and game wardens with dogs searched the brush along the roads leading to the boat launch.

“I feel badly,” said Addison resident Ann Merchant, who has a step-granddaughter Higgins’ age. “She’s too young a girl to have just vanished.”

By the time the underwater search was called off, divers had uncovered a crumpled license plate and a matted yearbook that appeared to be Higgins’.

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