Authorities Investigate Possible Sighting of Missing Orange Girl in Fairfield Duchess [Update]

Updated, 11:25 a.m.

The 12-year-old girl missing from Orange since Sunday morning may have been in Duchess on the Post Road in Fairfield Monday night.

Police said Tuesday that a police officer who went into the Post Road Duchess was told by an employee about 9:24 p.m. that a girl with the same features as Isabella Oleschuk was in the restaurant earlier in the evening.

Police said the Duchess employee said the girl had the same features and blonde hair but was wearing different clothes than the clothes she was last reported to be wearing.

"There's absolutely no confirmation it was her," Police Sgt. Sue Lussier, a department spokesman said. "The video was turned over to the Orange Police Department and FBI."

Lussier said it would have been better had the employee called police while the girl was still in the restaurant so officers could either confirm or discount that it was the missing 12-year-old. "It was only on the chance that the officer walked into Duchess that it was reported," she said. "Please don't delay on any notification of a serious nature. The worst that can happen is we go and verify it's not her and we can discount...validity to it."

Original Story

A girl who looked similar to the 12-year-old girl missing in Orange since Sunday was seen holding hands with a young dark-haired male, Orange Police Chief Robert Gagne said late Monday at a news conference.

"At this time we would like to identify who that couple is," Gagne said. The two were seen holding hands near Racebrook School in Orange early on Sunday morning at about the same time that Isabella Oleschuk was last seen. The male was slightly taller than the girl.

"They didn't appear to be in any kind of distress—they were just walking," Gagne said. "We just want to talk to them so we can rule out whether or not they are related to this case."

Isabella Oleschuk, who turned 12 in November, reportedly fed the family's chickens on Sunday morning as she always did, and then simply disappeared.

Monday marked Day Two of the investigation during which the Orange police have worked  with the FBI, state police, area fire departments, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and trained search and rescue workers in scouring about 200 acres of wooded land near the girl's home.

Police are following every lead and are particularly interested in a young couple that a jogger reported seeing near the Racebrook pond on Sunday morning sometime between 6 and 8 a.m. (around the time when they presume she left home).

Gagne thanked Orange residents for their patience and understanding during the investigation as searchers walk through their backyards and police knock on their doors.

"We will continue our efforts until Isabella is found," he said.

Thus far, the investigation has included search dogs and search teams during the day on Sunday. Sunday night, an FBI helicopter and airplane with infrared cameras flew over the wooded acrage around her neighborhood while FBI and police officers searched through the thick brush in the dark.

Around 1 p.m. 111 trained search and rescue workers were briefed at Fire Station No. 2 and then bused to the command post at a synagogue near Isabella's home, where they were sent into the woods to search again.

State police divers were in Racebrook Pond on Monday morning and police officers on ATVs were dispatched to different locations with rough terrain.