Police still searching for woman reported missing 5 years ago

DERRY — St. Patrick’s Day marked five years since a missing Nashua woman was last seen in Derry, police say.

Despite logging thousands of investigative hours and searching notable points of interest throughout town, nothing has led police to the discovery of Amanda Grazewski, who was 23 at the time she disappeared.

Grazewski went missing from a Birch Street home overnight on March 17, 2020, where she was known to be staying with a friend after running out of money to pay for a hotel in Nashua. She left the residence without her purse, cellphone and other personal belongings and has not been heard from since.

At the time, she did not own or have access to a vehicle.

Since her disappearance, police have conducted grid searches, drone searches and K9 sweeps throughout Derry and specific areas of interest but have not found any signs of Grazewski. Police have also investigated leads that have come from out-of-state but to no avail.

Last weekend, Jenness Keller of Sky Dog Aerial Thermal Imaging of Hudson, which provides search-and-rescue efforts via drone and other imaging services, volunteered his time and equipment to search a new area in Derry. He has helped search for Grazewski each year on the anniversary of her disappearance.

“We spent two partial days on an annual search for remains of Amanda in Derry, New Hampshire,” Keller said. “We focused on bodies of water in (a) totally new area than last year.”

Keller flew his drone over 42 acres of swampy marshes over a 20-minute period and captured more than 1,100 high-resolution images that he will pass on to the Derry Police Department for analysis. The search recaptured six key points of interest identified by police at the onset of the investigation, one of which Keller said was “very interesting.”

Keller told Boston 25 News that one of the images captured showed an object about 4 feet in size that could be a body or just a bundle of branches, but until the area is physically searched, he has no way of knowing.

Grazewski has not been declared dead and at this time, she is still only considered a missing person, said Capt. Vern Thomas of the Derry Police Department.

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“We already investigated that area multiple times but we are going to go out again and take a look,” Thomas said. “He (Keller) has not identified the spot where he took those photos. He has not zoomed in to look closely but we will go out when he’s given us the GPS coordinates and we will take a look ourselves.”

Grazewski has a history of substance abuse and is known to have connections in Nashua, Salem, Manchester and Hooksett.

According to Grazewksi’s mother, Jessica Grazewski, her daughter was planning on going to cosmetology school to provide a better life for herself and her child at the time of her disappearance. The missing girl’s mother has custody of her child.

Tips and information related to her disappearance have not been substantiated. Derry police continue to investigate all possible leads and interview known associates and friends of Grazewski believed to be the last to see her.

“We have had people that give us tips and a lot of times they’re just rumors or stories but we are chasing them all down,” Thomas said. “When there are stories that aren’t true, everybody needs to know we’ve received them and followed them up and determined they weren’t true.”

Grazewski is white, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She has brown hair and hazel eyes.

Anyone with information regarding her disappearance is asked to contact the Derry Police Department at 603-432-6111.

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