WINTERPORT, Maine — Friends and family of missing Maine Maritime Academy student David Breunig joined search and rescue personnel Saturday morning in Winterport to continue the search for the 21-year-old man last seen in Orono on Feb. 26.
About 15 of Breunig’s uncles, aunts and cousins arrived in Winterport on Saturday morning, joining another five who spent Friday night in Bangor, according to Richard Bowie, director of the Downeast Emergency Medicine Institute.
Volunteers and search and rescue experts will head out in teams of five to search the westward bank of the Penobscot River south of Winterport, where Bowie said a dog team specialized in cadaver searches has tracked to a specific area, which he declined to name.
Breunig left a party on Crosby Street in Orono at around 11:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, and his phone last pinged a local cellphone tower at 12:05 a.m. Feb. 27, officials have said. He was last seen walking toward the train tracks near a railroad bridge that crosses the Stillwater River.
Earlier this month, divers searched the Penobscot River near where it connects with the Stillwater based on the possibility Breunig fell from the railroad bridge. He was last seen in that area. Ground and aerial searches have focused along stretches of both rivers with no sign of him.
A friend of Breunig’s, Jack K. Gilligan of Westbrook, subsequently posted on Facebook a warning to people not to walk across the bridge, indicating he suspected Breunig had fallen.
The search for Breunig continued throughout this week, extending as far south as Stockton Springs.
BDN writer Nok-Noi Ricker contributed to this report.
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