'Zero connection to any other missing person'
Quotes from article:
Since 59-year-old Abbie Flynn went missing on Super Bowl Sunday, people across Cape Ann and further away have been trying to figure out what happened.
People have hypothesized about coyotes, suspicious vehicles, and made connections to drownings and other missing person cases in social media posts and in phone calls to the Times.
The Gloucester Police Department wants to put the public at ease.
“There is no indication, zero at all, no, none that this is connected in any way to any other cases or that foul play was involved,” police Chief Ed Conley told the Times on Thursday.
Conley confirmed that this is based on evidence.
“I have been as clear and transparent as I possibly can,” he said. “If I thought there was some sort of danger to the public, I would err on the side of releasing that information rather than keep it. But there is none.”
The discussion of Flynn’s disappearance among community members ramped up on Feb. 9 when a poster on the “Essex, MA--Notices and Issues” Facebook page urged the public, especially “middle-aged women,” to take precautions when walking alone and referenced four other missing person cases.
“As of yet there is no word on the missing woman from East Gloucester and perhaps I have watched too many ‘Forensic Files’ episodes but I find this troubling,” the poster wrote.
The post was shared almost 600 times, reacted to over 300 times and had more than 60 comments.
One resident confronted a Times reporter late Wednesday afternoon expressing her concern, having bought several deadbolts to keep strangers out of her house since she has had unwanted guests in the past.