As of Thursday afternoon, Police were still looking for two Topsham women who got lost during a trip to the Maine Mall on Tuesday. The pair were last spotted heading west on Route 6 from Springfield at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Springfield is a Penobscot County town about 20 miles east of Lincoln.
Kimberly Pushard, 51, left, and Angela Bussell, 50, have not returned home from a Tuesday trip the Maine Mall. Facebook photo
Kimberly Pushard, 51, and Angela Bussell, 50, who both have intellectual disabilities, became disoriented on the interstate and accidentally drove to Massachusetts, according to police. At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the pair called family members in Maine, who gave them directions home.
The women made their way to New Hampshire but again lost their bearings after requesting directions from the Exeter Dispatch Center and a New Hampshire state trooper. At some point, the police believe, the pair’s cell phones died. Family members reported the missing women to Topsham police at 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
Police spent most of Wednesday searching the Manchester, New Hampshire, area for Pushard’s vehicle — a red 2012 Jeep Compass with Maine registration 1960VC — based on the pair’s most recent cell phone location data from around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Only around 7:30 p.m. did police learn that Pushard had used her debit card to buy gas at an Irving station in Springfield on Wednesday morning, some 300 miles from the search area.
“The fact that they were up there yesterday shows how difficult this is,” Topsham Police Chief Marc Hagan said. “All day, until we get the (Springfield) information, we thought they were somewhere in New Hampshire.”
Police also learned that before stopping in Springfield the pair had run out of gas while driving on I-95 near Lincoln. A man, who later reported the incident, helped get the women fuel and gave them directions home.
After security footage from the Irving station confirmed Pushard and Bussell had been in Springfield, Topsham police requested state troopers help search the surrounding area. But as more than a day has passed since the women were in their last known location, officers have little to go on.
Police are working to obtain more recent debit card records that could show if and where Pushard bought gas or food in the past day, Hagan said. But the process, which requires a subpoena, has been slowed by a winter storm that delayed court and bank openings on Thursday morning.
That storm has raised the stakes of finding the women quickly, Hagan said.
“We’re very concerned, especially with the weather that came in last night and the fact that they’re so mobile,” Hagan said on Thursday morning. “The obvious concern is that they run out of gas again and are on a side road somewhere where they can’t get assistance.”
Police ask that anyone who comes into contact with Pushard and Bussell call the police and wait with the pair rather than provide directions home. Hagan also suggested spreading word of the missing women on social media.
“The wider the net is that we cast here, the better the opportunity is that we’re going to find this vehicle and these women,” Hagan said.
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