Authorities continued to search by air and on local roads Sunday for two Midcoast women who lost their way Tuesday after they headed to the Maine Mall in Portland.
Longtime friends Kimberly Pushard, 51, of Wiscasset, and Angela Bussell, 50, of Brunswick, have intellectual disabilities and can become easily disoriented, according to relatives and police.
Kimberly Pushard, left, and Angela Bussell
On Tuesday afternoon, they wound up to the south, in Massachusetts – and then spent the evening driving and asking for directions from relatives, a dispatch center, and a New Hampshire state trooper. They were last spotted getting gas at Smith’s General Store in Springfield on Wednesday morning. Pushard’s car – a red 2012 Jeep Compass, license place 1960VC – was later spotted in Lincoln, Maine.
The women have now been away from home for five nights, out in the cold and the snow.
At Smith’s General Store on Sunday, the lottery machine displayed a silver alert notification, telling customers of the ongoing search.
Sherry Glidden, who works at the store, spoke to Pushard there on Wednesday morning.
Glidden said she helped Pushard use her debit card, and Pushard made an impression. She said all kinds of people come into the store, but when someone is as kind as Pushard was, you notice.
“She was very sweet, very nice,” said Glidden.
Since she learned the women are missing, out in the cold weather, and in danger, she’s been thinking about their encounter.
Families of the two women filed a missing report with Topsham police at 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Topsham Police Chief Marc Hagan said two Maine Warden Service planes were in the air again on Sunday searching, “and more wardens on the ground.”
Pushard’s car was last spotted outside a Marden’s store in Lincoln on Wednesday morning. Police believe the Jeep was headed south on Route 155 in Enfield. Hagan said the search on Sunday was focused east of I-95, “but they have wardens spread out in the area.”
Emily McCabe, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Sunday that the Maine Warden Service’s search area is “the size of Rhode Island.”
Glidden, of Smith’s General Store, said that when Pushard showed up there, “she seemed normal” and had come inside to pay for gas. “I looked out and saw she was parked at the diesel pump,” Glidden said, so she told Pushard to back her car up to a regular gasoline pump. She said she saw a passenger, presumably Bussell, in the passenger seat.
Pushard went outside to the car but then came back, asking if she had left her keys on the counter. She had. Glidden gave her the keys and helped Pushard use a debit card to buy $25 of gas.
Pushard then asked Glidden which way to head to go south. “I told her to take this road 20 miles to Lincoln,” Glidden said.
She said Pushard showed no sign of being lost or worried. “She wasn’t wound up. She was calm.”
People in the area are talking about the two women, concerned about their welfare. “Everybody’s worried,” Glidden said. “We just hope we find them.”
Glidden said she’s seen Maine Warden Service vehicles pass by the store. She heard a helicopter in the air. “They are searching.”
On Saturday Pushard’s mother, Patsy Pushard said her daughter doesn’t usually drive far from home and gets easily lost on the road. She said Kimberly told her she was going to pick up her friend on Tuesday to go to lunch. “She never got back … I just want my baby girl back.”
Anyone who sees Pushard’s car or the woman is asked to immediately call 911 or the Topsham Police Department at 725-4337.
John Terhune of The Times Record contributed to this report.
This story will be updated.
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