Ashley Turcotte of Barnstead still missing, investigation progress slow

BARNSTEAD — A nearly two-month-long search for Ashley Turcotte, missing since early January, is still underway but has yielded little success even with police collaborating with regional law enforcement agencies and a company specializing in the use of drones.

Turcotte, 31, of Barnstead, was reported missing Jan. 3, after her car was discovered with her belongings inside parked at Town Hall. Turcotte was last seen at her home. She has brown hair and brown eyes and is about 5', 5". She was last seen wearing dark pants, a dark long-sleeved shirt and a dark-colored winter coat.

New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officer Lt. Adam Cheney asked members of the public to check their backyards and barns, keeping an eye out for the specific articles of clothing, size XXXL, Turcotte was wearing when she was reported missing.

Individuals who are exposed to extreme cold air or water temperatures and who subsequently develop hypothermia have a tendency to strip their clothing to alleviate a burning hot sensation on their skin, he said.

Barnstead police have put out calls to area residents instructing them to look for such articles of clothing and personal items which might be connected to Turcotte’s disappearance.

Town Hall didn’t have any surveillance cameras at the time of Turcotte’s disappearance, but officials installed cameras this week, Chief Paul Poirier said Tuesday.

“There’s nothing really new,” Poirier said. “But the State Police have been actively involved in this case.” New Hampshire Fish and Game and several commercial operations have also assisted in the search for Turcotte.

“My guys have been working a lot of hours on this,” Poirier said. “We’ve covered a lot of ground.”

Poirier has spoken to State Police regarding the use of a helicopter in the search and Turcotte's vital biological information including dental records have been listed with the National Crime Information Center, which would help law enforcement officials positively identify Turcotte if she were to be found dead in the search. Once weather conditions improve, Poirier plans to organize search efforts using a State Police helicopter.

There is no suspected criminal element in this case and there are no suspects related to Turcotte’s disappearance, Poirier said. He asked members of the public to show respect to Turcotte’s family, not to jump to conclusions or to make wild accusations.

“We’d like to help the family get some closure on this case,” he said.

Selectboard Chair Paula Penney said she wants members of the public to know the search for Turcotte is a major priority for town officials.

“Obviously we’re very concerned and it’s certainly on our minds on a continuous basis,” Penney said. “We’ve used a lot of resources to try to make some headway here — the whole town is very concerned for this family. It’s not something that has been forgotten about, that is absolutely not the case.”

For a missing person search to yield so little evidence after so long is somewhat uncommon, Cheney said.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s a very bizarre case — usually you have something. It’s just horrific.”

Surveillance footage from a nearby Dollar General store captured images of Turcotte making two purchases within two hours the morning she went missing. The contents of her purchase have been identified as table salt and a bag of candy, Cheney said Monday.

“I’ve been doing searches in the woodlands and the waterways,” Cheney said, explaining several law enforcement agencies have contributed K-9s and people to the search for the missing Turcotte. “We’ve been looking for quite a few days — we’re just waiting on getting some more clues.”

New Hampshire Fish and Game uses dogs in their search efforts, though it's the State Police who employ cadaver dogs, specially trained to locate human remains. New England Canine, a private company that trains and handles cadaver dogs, is also contributing to the search.

Weather complications

Environmental conditions due to weather and water levels have greatly impacted the search, Cheney said. Higher water levels because of recent hard rainstorms and snowfall make identifying people or remains more difficult. Higher water levels also contribute to reduced safety for search and rescue divers, who undertake a perilous task even in good conditions.

But officials have cleared the “whole river from South Barnstead Road down to the dam,” Cheney said. They’ve employed the use of both scuba divers, who search the deepest and darkest areas of the waterways, and snorkelers, who are able to spot objects closer to the surface.

The search has also been affected by a serious lack of personnel, he added. Fish and Game are actively working to recruit more conservation officers.

“There’s also manpower issues,” he said. “We’re quite short.

“It’s very discouraging,” Cheney said. “I feel for the family.”

Officials have searched stepwise in a 1-mile radius from where Turcotte left her vehicle at Town Hall.

“We just want to get her found. It’s stressful on the family,” he noted. “We’ve gone through the same piece of woods four times.”

Outside help

A former law enforcement officer who now owns a gunsmith and a drone company has been assisting police in the search for Turcotte every weekend since she went missing.

Rob Russell is the owner of 2A Tactical, a gun shop in Barrington. He’s a U.S. Army veteran and a former police officer who worked in Dover. Now, he supports law enforcement agencies and private citizens in search and rescue operations to locate both humans and animals — free of charge.

“I do people, animals, pets and livestock all for free,” Russell said Monday. “That side of it is always for free.”

Russell was invited to help in the search for Turcotte by a family member and the police department. He’s been searching for her every weekend since she went missing along with Mike Dunn, also a drone operator.

“We went on Saturday,” he said. “We do this in coordination with law enforcement. Every week I either speak to or email with Barnstead police and Fish and Game, or both.”

But last weekend, the weather provided for a difficult search. Conditions were awful, he said, with wind speeds topping out at around 30 knots. Search flights were forced to cease earlier than he would have liked. They generally search for about three hours, but called it off after an hour Saturday.

“We’ve had some wonderful flying days,” he said. “Not so much this time.”

Russell uses a DJI Mavic 3T, the “T” indicating the drone has thermal imaging capabilities. It’s a widely-used drone in professional circles and law enforcement agencies. Russell and Dunn are FAA part 107 licensed commercial drone pilots. To earn that certification, a pilot must conduct an expensive exam at an airport.

Last weekend, Russell and Dunn set up shop behind a rural fire station in the search vicinity.

“We set up there in the back,” Russell said. “We didn’t end up pushing out very far.”

They search over the numerous waterways in the area, using the location where Turcotte parked her vehicle in front of Town Hall as a center marker. They push out slowly from that location, little by little. They’ve searched over the lake and the dam, the area around Dollar General and around Turcotte’s home.

“One drone in a few flights can cover dozens and dozens of acres,” he said, noting their method is to fly slowly and deliberately, combing over the area.

Thermal imaging, which detects ambient heat, can be a great asset when searching for a missing person or animal, he said. Even if the individual is deceased, their profile looks distinct when viewed on a thermal camera.

The camera on this drone is so sensitive that an operator, flying at 200 feet, can count individual blades of grass, he added. But they haven’t found any signs of Turcotte so far.

“We have found a couple of things that we felt warranted further investigation by the police,” Russell said.” The police took them seriously and looked into those reports, but Poirier said Tuesday he personally investigated two of the described locations and came up empty.

Russell remains hopeful in the search for Turcotte.

“Right now we’re in a good window because the tree canopy hasn’t bloomed out yet,” he said, noting tree foliage makes aerial searches more difficult to conduct. “There’s some advantages to looking in the winter.”