ESSEX, Vt. -
A single light illuminates the home of Bill and Lorraine Currier. Neighbors of the missing Essex couple say it burns day and night months after their disappearance.
"It's a little unsettling sitting on my living room couch every night and looking across the street to their house," said Pat Goddard, the missing couple's neighbor.
Goddard says she was stunned to learn police were searching once again, ten months after the couple vanished from their Colbert Street home. She hopes this search turns up clues in the Currier case.
"At least it would bring some kind of closure to what happened to them and where they are located," she said, "But there are still a lot of unanswered questions as to why and how and who."
Questions police would not answer Thursday as they excavated this lot off Route 15 in Essex. Police say a new investigative lead prompted them to dig up the lawn at 32 Upper Main Street. According to the town clerk, Betty Atkins bought the ten acre plot in October 2011. A vacant home on the property was demolished last fall. Staff at a neighboring business say it was a known shelter for squatters and recently a haven for police activity.
"The Essex police were coming and going just for homeless people being there and checking on it. The woman who was taking care of it noticed there was a lot of vandalism," said Jeanne Dufresne, who works across the street from where police were digging.
The Vermont state police mobile crime lab was on the scene as well as two canine units. Throughout the day detectives took their dogs down to the deep ditch, carved out by police, to sniff out evidence. Police measured and bagged a few unidentifiable objects. By day's end it did not appear that the dig turned up any major breaks. Then again it's unclear what police were searching for and they were not talking to the media.
By 7 p.m. Thursday investigators called it quits. The mobile crime lab as well and an Essex police officer will be stationed on the scene overnight. Police say the investigation and the search will continue Friday morning around 8 a.m.
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