by Alex Brooks
New York State Police were coordinating a major search for a missing woman from Petersburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jessica Clyde, 28 years old, left her home in Petersburgh early Monday morning and no one knew where she went or if she was OK. Her family called police on Tuesday morning and asked for assistance finding her. [private]She had left her apartment in the hamlet of Petersburgh on foot very early Monday morning, according to Captain Bill Keeler of the State Police, who coordinated the search. Keeler said she was wearing blue pajama bottoms and a black winter coat when she left.
The police were told that she was seen heading east on foot along Route 2. They received a tip that she may have gotten a ride into Williamstown on Monday afternoon, but they were not sure if that was correct. Williamstown Police and the Massachusetts State Police were contacted and began to search on that side of the border. Captain Keeler said she is a hiker, so they thought she might have walked into the woods in the vicinity of Petersburgh Pass.
A large search had been organized. State Police helicopters flew low over the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a State Police K-9 unit was deployed in the search. A strategy meeting was held at the Petersburgh Town Hall in the late morning of Wednesday, and approximately 15 crews were sent out on searches on Wednesday along roads and trails in the vicinity. New York State Forest Rangers assisted with the searches as did Petersburgh Fire Department and EMS personnel and volunteers from the community. The Rensselaer County Department of Public Safety brought in a mobile command unit, with communications equipment on board, to help coordinate the searches.
As darkness fell on Wednesday afternoon, no clues to Clyde’s whereabouts had been found and search personnel were getting ready to call it a day when she was dropped off at the Town Hall, where she was reunited with her mother. She was taken to Samaritan Hospital to assess her health.
A local person had found her walking by the side of the road in Petersburgh and had transported her to the Town Hall. It was said that she had been in Williamstown during the two days that she was missing, but The Eastwick Presswas not able to confirm that, or the name of the person who picked her up, before press time.
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