Search continues for missing teenFrench Settlement stunned by girl’s disappearance
By DAVID J. MITCHELL
Advocate Florida parishes bureau
Published: Feb 3, 2007
Advocate staff photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Danette Aydell, center, breaks down Friday afternoon as she pleads with family friend Travis Lawless, left, to find her daughter, Kaitlin Aydell.
FRENCH SETTLEMENT — Friends, neighbors and relatives waited with worried faces Friday as police and sheriff’s deputies searched the mobile home of a man held in connection with seventh-grader Kaitlin M. Aydell’s disappearance. The mobile home is situated behind her house.
The 13-year-old French Settlement High School student was last seen Thursday about 3 p.m. leaving a school bus for home.
Her disappearance shocked residents of French Settlement, a tight-knit southern Livingston Parish bayou community where these kind of things aren’t supposed to happen, Kaitlin’s family and friends and law enforcement officials said.
“We all just think French Settlement is so safe because we’re out here,” said Jeanne Delhommer, 39, one of Kaitlin’s softball coaches.
Nicknamed “legs” for her long legs and height, Kaitlin plays first base for a community softball team and enjoys athletics but is shy around strangers. She has three cats that she loves, family and friends said.
Mark Sterling Lewis, 39, was arrested early Friday on one count of obstruction of justice for giving false information to investigators. For the past two years, he has been Kaitlin’s relative by marriage.
Lewis “was not truthful with investigators when asked pertinent questions” to help find the girl, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Lewis was convicted of kidnapping and other charges involving the abduction of a woman in September 1995 and served prison time.
Deputies had no information on Kaitlin’s whereabouts or condition Friday night as temperatures dropped into the low 30s, but were continuing to search, hampered by darkness and an inability to narrow down her possible whereabouts.
“There are so many places you can be. You know, where do you look?” said Jason Ard, chief of operations for the Sheriff’s Office.
Ard and relatives both said they planned more searches this morning.
Hoping for the best Friday afternoon, Kaitlin’s mother, Danette, and about two dozen friends and relatives broke down on her front porch and in the yard as a rumor passed from mouth to ear about Kaitlin’s well-being.
Danette Aydell was quickly assured the rumor wasn’t true, but the emotion of the false alarm didn’t subside as fast.
“You have to find her for me. Please, you have to find her for me,” Danette Aydell repeated about her only child, crying into the shoulder of a friend.
About that time, around 3 p.m., a school bus passed in front of the Aydells’ house. The bus returned minutes later, the few boys left aboard sitting near the back and staring out of the side windows.
During deputies’ search of Lewis’ mobile home, they could be seen removing a computer hard drive, a digital camera body without the lens and other bagged evidence.
Deputies already had seized Kaitlin Aydell’s computer hard drive, family members said. The State Police Crime Lab is processing Lewis’ 2006 Chevrolet truck for evidence, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
Deputies and officers used police dogs to search the mobile home and the woods behind it and dragged parts of nearby Colyell Bay.
Danette Aydell said Kaitlin called her at work shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday when her daughter arrived home from school. The mother said she and her daughter share a close relationship.
“She doesn’t go anywhere without calling me, and I don’t go anywhere without calling her,” Danette Aydell said.
Later Thursday, Danette Aydell tried to reach Kaitlin on her cell phone, but was unable to do so. Danette Aydell said she didn’t find Kaitlin at home and called 911.
Danette Aydell said her home computer shows Kaitlin last used it 3:06 p.m. Thursday. Waiting for news, Danette described herself only as numb.
Community support was evident throughout the afternoon. Some residents distributed fliers with Kaitlin’s picture and description: 5 feet 5 inches tall, 100 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes with a birthmark above an ankle.
Others formed parties of four-wheelers and trucks to search woods and ditches.
“We’re going to go until the night,” said George Matherne, 30, a nearby French Settlement resident.
In September 1995, Lewis kidnapped a woman, placing a screwdriver to her throat and forcing her to drive to an unknown location. The woman escaped, the Sheriff’s Office said.
He was arrested and booked with auto theft, felony theft and aggravated kidnapping. Lewis subsequently was convicted and served two years of a seven-year prison sentence. The rest was suspended, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Danette Aydell and other family members said they had no idea about Lewis’ criminal history. He was held without bond in Livingston Parish Prison after his arrest.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (225) 686-2241.
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