Family looks for lost woman

ANCHORAGE -- Dozens of Talkeetna residents interrupted their normal routines earlier this week, drove to Anchorage, and worked to assist another Talkeetna family in a search of their daughter.

Bethany "Beth" Correira was reported missing by family members Sunday and Anchorage police began searching for her that evening with help from search and rescue volunteers.

Correira recently moved into an apartment on M Street near downtown Anchorage and the city's coastal trail. Her mother, Linda Correira, went to visit her last Sunday and found the apartment empty. The younger Correira also missed an appointment with her brother to pick him up at the Anchorage Airport on Saturday.

On Tuesday, the third day of the search, the missing girl's mother gave high marks to investigators from the Anchorage Police Department.

"They have been talking to me on a regular basis," Correira said. "They have been excellent and they have been a huge help."

Police finished their physical search Monday and now friends of the Correira family are canvassing Anchorage and knocking on doors. Talkeetna residents are hanging posters with Bethany's picture throughout the Anchorage and Mat-Su area.

Correira has met with investigators from APD twice a day or so and has been hanging posters, but not necessarily knocking on people's doors. She has also taken time to speak with reporters. Those conversations are focused on describing her daughter. She won't speculate on what may have happened to Bethany.

"I'm pretty strong about saying I won't go there," she said.

Bethany's apartment in a four-plex on M Street became a center for volunteers as soon as police finished looking for clues there Sunday night. Family friend Randy Brooks was working on about five hours' sleep Tuesday afternoon after two long days. The volunteer's efforts duplicate some of the APD-led initial search but they are also knocking on doors to distribute flyers and posters.

"There have been probably four dozen people [from Talkeetna] here off and on," Brooks said. "We've been out going over in the daylight what they went over at night and we're going farther afield. We've got Bush pilots, mountain guides and construction workers."

Bethany is said to have had daily contact with family members. She graduated from Susitna Valley High School in the class of 2000 and traveled overseas some after graduation. She moved to Anchorage to start summer classes at the University of Alaska six days before her disappearance.

Beverly Tanner, a family friend who was distributing flyers in the Valley Tuesday, described Bethany as active and physically fit.

"She specifically moved to that apartment because she's a runner and she wanted to be near the coastal trail," Tanner said.

APD spokesman Ron McGee said detectives continue to pound the pavement. It's important to note that just because the APD-organized physical search for Bethany in the Anchorage neighborhood is finished, that doesn't mean police have stopped looking for her.

"Our detectives are still out there hitting the concrete, trying to follow leads and develop leads," McGee said. "They have some things they are following up on."

McGee would not discuss any potential leads in the investigation further than that. He also could not say whether the initial physical search turned up evidence of any kind.

"It is still an open investigating and that's what I would say. It is still an open investigation and we have detectives who are working it hard," McGee said. "We're praying that we will find her alive and well."