BANGOR, Maine — Though no one knew it then, Jan. 29 of last year would be the last time former Maine resident Danielle Bertolini would be in contact with her family.
After days went by without word of the 23-year-old, her family began to grow more and more worried.
Her mother, Billie-Jo Dick of Plymouth, said at the time that this was unusual behavior for Bertolini, a former Nokomis High School student who usually maintained daily contact with her sister Mariah Bertolini, who lives in the Seattle area.
Bertolini, 23, was reported missing to Fortuna, California, police on Feb. 19.
Given the amount of time that has passed since Bertolini last was heard from or seen, Dick believes that her daughter is dead.
“I have so many different thoughts that go through my mind,” Dick said Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the last phone call she received from Danielle.
“‘Why Danielle?’ and ‘Did she suffer?’ What was going through her mind … It’s horrible, the thoughts I have.”
Police initially told Dick they considered her daughter a “voluntary” missing person because of her age, and as such, their ability to assist was limited.
However, in early July of last year, police confirmed that they considered Bertolini’s disappearance suspicious.
That’s because Danielle went missing at roughly the same time as another area woman, 37-year-old Sheila Franks of Rio Dell and Loleta, California, who last was seen on Jan. 11, according to a missing person flyer posted on the Internet by her sister Melisa Walstrom of Alaska.
Both women have blond hair and blue eyes, are similar in appearance and build, and traveled in the same social circle.
Family members of both women, who have joined forces in the search effort, say that police have told them that they believe the two missing person cases are linked because Danielle Bertolini and Sheila Franks are believed to have last been seen with the same 43-year-old Fortuna man before they vanished.
That person of interest has yet to be charged, Dick said.
Dick flew to the West Coast in late February of last year for a two-week search effort coordinated from Maine by Richard Bowie, operations director for the Down East Emergency Medical Institute, a volunteer search and rescue group to which Dick belongs.
Dick said Thursday that she is planning another trip to California in the near future and that she will be accompanied by Julie Jones and her tracking dog, Quincy, of VK9 Scent Specific Search and Recovery.
Jones and Quincy went to California to pursue leads in the case several months ago, according to Bowie. He said Thursday that the next search will focus on two places of interest, one in Fortuna and the other in Swains Flat, about 20 miles away.
“I hope that we find Danielle in the search,” Dick said. “My fear is that we don’t find her and I have to leave without her again.”
“It is really hard to keep going on like this with all the not knowing where she is,” she said. “But I will do whatever it takes to find my daughter.”
Anyone with information about Bertolini’s whereabouts should call Fortuna police at 707-725-7550. Anyone with information about Franks’ disappearance should call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department at 707-445-7251.