Missing Maine Teacher Was Sleepless, Stressed, Husband Says



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UPDATE: 5:05 p.m. – Authorities have confirmed that they have found Kristin Westra's home, but they have not yet said it is her. The discovery was made in a wooded area. It's also clear who made the discovery – whether it was the police or someone else.

Police looking for a missing Maine schoolteacher roped off a house near where she lived on Friday, days into an intensive search.

Crime scene tape surrounded the small house, about a half-mile from Kristin Westra's home in North Yarmouth, and there was "a large police presence," according to ABC affiliate WMTW-8. It was not immediately clear that investigators had discovered anything.

Westra, 47, disappeared from her home Sunday night, according to her husband, and had been anxious and sleepless.

Searchers estimated they cleared a 1.5-mile wooded area near her home without finding a trace. Police said there was no indication of foul play, but they would not rule it out.

"Cumberland County Sheriff 's Office Capt. Cumberland County Sheriff' s Office Capt. Scott Stewart told the Portland Press Herald.

Westra "was experiencing what he would have done in the days before," said Jay Westra, told NBC News.

Earlier Sunday, "She's a nurse practitioner for a" safety assessment "and was judged" not at risk for any harm to herself or anybody else, "Jay Westra said. "She made plans with a nurse practitioner, her sister-in-law, to have the labs drawn on Monday."

Jay Westra told police he and his wife went to bed Sunday night and that's the last time he saw her.

Relatives described her as a dependable elementary school teacher who would not just leave her husband and two children.

She is the "last person who would do something like this," her brother, Eric Rohrbach, told ABC News. "This is very abnormal."

Her husband said she was gone when he awoke after 6 AM on Monday.

"Because she's a communicator," Westra's best friend and co-worker, Tammy Drew-Hoidal, told WGME-TV. "The fact that that happened, I just felt sick."

Kristin Westra teaches grades 3 to 5 at Chebeague Island School. It's a small school, with only about 25 students, saidDrew-Hoidal, who teaches kindergarten through second grade.

Kristin Westra was last seen Sunday night.

According to her husband, Kristin Westra was restless when they went to bed Sunday night. He told police he was remembers waking at 3:30 a.m. and finding she was not in bed, but assumed she'd gone into another room.

"At 6:20, I woke up as usual," Jay Westra told NBC News. "My daughter was up, she was getting herself ready for school. I showered. Did not want to wake Kristin because I thought she might be asleep in the next room. And then after my shower, I walked by it, did not see her, panicked slightly. "

Kristin Westra was not anywhere in the house. Her husband said she left without her car, purse or cellphone.

Jay Westra told the police investigated the neighborhood for his wife, an avid runner, then contacted the sheriff's office and reported her missing.

Authorities said they investigated more than 100 tips.

Jay Westra told WCSH-TV he is cooperating with police and is not concerned with what people might think or say.

"My feelings are secondary," he said. "My primary thing is the return of Kristin to me and her family … I do not care what people think. I do not care what people gossip. "

Kristin Westra is a woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She weighs about 140 pounds and is 5 feet 10 inches tall. Police said they are not sure what they are wearing at the time of her disappearance.

A prayer vigil is planned for 5 pm Saturday at the Congregational Church in Cumberland.

Contact Cumberland County Regional Communications Center at 207-883-2810, Option 2.

Send David Lohr an email or follow him on Facebook Twitter.

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