CANADA Canada - Sarah Tessier Powell, 70, Halifax NS, 30 Sept 2012 -missing from cruise ship

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American woman missing from cruise ship

Halifax Regional Police are asking for the public's help in locating a 70-year-old U.S. citizen who may have walked off a visiting cruise ship in Sydney or Halifax.

Sarah Tessier Powell was last seen Sept. 30 on the Holland America cruise ship Veendam.

The ship's next stops were scheduled in Charlottetown on Oct. 2, Sydney on Oct. 3 and Halifax on Oct. 4.

Police said they do not suspect foul play in Powell's disappearance. They believe she may have walked off the ship without being checked by security. It's not clear where Powell may have disembarked.

Powell is described as five feet six inches tall with a thin build and brown, shoulder-length hair. She speaks with a strong southern accent.

Halifax Regional Police said there is a concern for Powell's well-being because she requires medication and could become agitated without it.

si-ns-police-missing-powell.jpg


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/10/09/ns-cruise-missing-woman.html
 
For Immediate Release
Halifax Regional Police/RCMP
Media Release
October 9, 2012 (12:25 p.m)
Missing Person - Police Seek Public’s Help


Investigators with the HRP/RCMP Integrated Vice Unit are seeking the public’s help in locating a missing U.S. citizen.

Seventy-year-old Sarah Tessier Powell was last seen on September 30, 2012 on-board the Holland America cruise ship Veendam. The ship's next scheduled stops were Charlottetown, PEI, October 2; Sydney,

NS, October 3 and finally Halifax, NS, October 4. There is no evidence to suggest that Sarah has met with foul play; however, it is believed she may have walked off the ship without being checked by security. It is not clear where she may have disembarked.

Sarah is a white woman, 5’6” with a thin build and brown shoulder length hair. She speaks with a strong southern accent.

There is concern for Sarah’s well-being because she requires medication and may become agitated without it. Officers request that Sarah or anyone with information on her whereabouts contacts Halifax Regional Police at 490-5016.

http://www.halifax.ca/police/PressR...ceRequestPublicsHelpLocatingMissingWoman.html
 
Any idea why she was last seen on 30 September but isn't believed to have disappeared until either 3 or 4 October? Seems like there's a discrepancy in the timeline there.
 
Any idea why she was last seen on 30 September but isn't believed to have disappeared until either 3 or 4 October? Seems like there's a discrepancy in the timeline there.

I think that was the last time anyone physically saw her on board. The next stop was Charlottetown, PEI on the 2nd. and then Sydney on the 3rd. and Halifax on the 4th.

She could be anywhere. Hope she's found safe. I can't believe they don't have security checks on these ships! :banghead:
 
I saw this on the news tonight...
very strange timeline... such a pretty lady -where could she be?
A strong southern accent would definitely be recognizable here in the Maritimes...hope she met up with friends/family.
I thought all cruise ships had security checks????
 
Halifax regional police are handling this
If she wasn't seen since sept 30th, I wonder why they believe she may have disembarked in halifax (my home town), or sydney when Charlottetown was the first stop

(if i am reading this right)
 
Hey Dushi,
I'm a Haligonian too :)
I hope she is found soon or is somewhere she has chosen to be - it is getting quite chilly out there...
 
Hey Dushi,
I'm a Haligonian too :)
I hope she is found soon or is somewhere she has chosen to be - it is getting quite chilly out there...

I hope so too
especially with her medication needs
I wonder if she was confused?
It seems strange for no one to notice she wasn't around from the 30th of sept but not question it til the 4th


Born and raised in NS, live in the middle of the county for the last 25 years
 
It's VERY strange if she disappeared in any of those cities. If you're familiar with the Maritime accent, you'd imagine that a woman who spoke a distinctly Southern US dialect would stick out like crazy.

I've been to all three cities where the ship docked, and none of them is is so large that someone could easily slip into the crowd and vanish voluntarily. Not to mention that the entire region is pretty isolated and rural, so you'd think that if she wandered far from an urban area, she'd be spotted right away. To get to any major city in Canada or to the border requires some driving; the region is very remote.

Perhaps they've ruled out Charlottetown because she would have been spotted using the bridge (you definitely have to pay a fare and if I recall correctly the toll booths are manned by actual people) and the ferry requires a ticket, so there would have been a record of her traveling that way. Further, it seems like you'd be more likely to be spotted as a non-local in PEI than you would in Nova Scotia but maybe that's my own mistaken impression.

Locals, correct me if this is wrong, but if I recall, the only ferry routes from Nova Scotia now are between Caribou and Wood Islands, PE and Digby and Saint John, NB. Caribou is about 2 hours from Halifax and 3.5 hours from Sydney. Digby is approximately 2.75 hours from Halifax and 7 hours from Sydney. If you get a ferry from Digby to Saint John I think you can get another ferry as far as Portland, Maine, but again, if she'd taken the ferry, it seems that there'd be a record of her having purchased a ticket. The ferry is also pretty slow, and by the time you were done driving from either Halifax or Sydney to either of the ferry ports, you might as well drive into New Brunswick, which takes you closer to the border and the rest of Canada.

If she is lost somewhere in the area, I hope she's found a warm place to wait. It's definitely starting to get cold up there this time of year, especially for southerners!


OT: Halifax is my very favorite city in Canada. Love that part of the world so much.
 
I don't think there is anything rural about halifax, IMO
She could travel south shore to Yarmouth and cross over to Maine
But you are right, if she traveled into the US from Canada , she would be required to show a passport.

Who was she travelling with?
Who reported her missing?
 
It seems strange for no one to notice she wasn't around from the 30th of sept but not question it til the 4th

If she traveled alone or in a large group with no particular friend who would expect to see her daily and miss her it could easily happen imo. She might have been noticed missing on the 4th for the first time, and then they could have started asking around and it emerged that no one remembers seeing her since the 30th. Or maybe people in her group noticed they hadn't seen her around and figured, hey, it's a large ship, you can easily miss someone, but as days went by they started asking and realized that no one else had seen her either.

Was she supposed to get off the cruise ship on the 4th? In that case it might be that whoever was going to clean her cabin noticed that she left her luggage there or there was a head count in the tour bus and she didn't show or she was supposed to meet someone in Halifax but didn't. In that case she would have been missed on the 4th and then they could have tracked back the sightings, any credit card usage on the ship, phone calls. etc.
 
The Louisiana woman was travelling alone, said Halifax Regional Police Const. Pierre Bourdages.

"She was last seen by a crew member on board the ship, so it took time for them to realize she was not on board the ship any more," he said Tuesday.

"She left the ship without the crew's knowledge or security's knowledge on board."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/10/09/ns-cruise-missing-woman.html

How do they know that?
 
The Louisiana woman was travelling alone, said Halifax Regional Police Const. Pierre Bourdages.

"She was last seen by a crew member on board the ship, so it took time for them to realize she was not on board the ship any more," he said Tuesday.

"She left the ship without the crew's knowledge or security's knowledge on board."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/10/09/ns-cruise-missing-woman.html

How do they know that?


Good question. Maybe they saw someone on surveillance video resembling Sarah disembark from the ship ?

Just had a creepy thought. What if she's still on the ship hiding somewhere? She allegedly suffers from some mental disorder.

Hope they checked hospitals and psych facilities in the Maritimes.
 
I wonder if they're sure she didn't fall overboard.
 
I wonder if they're sure she didn't fall overboard.

It really doesn't sound as if they are sure of anything

I certainly hope she is safe, somewhere
Such a vibrant looking lady
 
Is anyone looking for this lady? Where are her family members? Friends?:waitasec:
 
Ms. Powell was apparently last seen onboard Sunday night (30th) and not present on on Thursday morning (4th) in Halifax. Good gracious, that’s 3+ days (and a lot of open water) that she wasn’t spotted. I took the cruise schedule and inserted the local weather — looks as if it was pretty greyish and wet, perhaps some fog and not too many passengers up on deck maybe? I hope they’re checking CCTVs on the ship…

9/29/2012 Sat (mostly cloudy) Montreal, QC Dep 5:00 PM
9/30/2012 Sun (rainy) Quebec City, QC (on board Sun evening) Arr 7:00 AM Dep 5:00 PM
10/1/2012 Mon (rainy, windy) Cruise the Saint Lawrence Gulf At sea all day
10/2/2012 Tue (mostly cloudy) Charlottetown, PEI Arr 8:00 AM Dep 5:00 PM
10/3/2012 Wed (cloudy, windy) Sydney, NS Arr 8:00 AM Dep 4:00 PM
10/4/2012 Thu (overcast) Halifax, NS (not accounted for) Arr 8:00 AM
 
I don't think there is anything rural about halifax, IMO
She could travel south shore to Yarmouth and cross over to Maine
But you are right, if she traveled into the US from Canada , she would be required to show a passport.

Who was she travelling with?
Who reported her missing?

I didn't mean that Halifax itself is rural - just that once you leave the urban area, there's really not another significant metropolitan center until Moncton.
 

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