The disappearance of 13-year-old Stefanie Damron from a rural Maine town of fewer than 600 people has left locals searching for answers.
Her father, Dale Damron, has drawn attention for posting threatening videos aimed at neighbors on his YouTube channel as the investigation into his daughter’s case remains unsolved.
Stefanie was first reported missing by her family on September 24, 2024. They told police she was last seen the previous day when she walked into the dense woods behind her home to “clear her head” after an argument with her sister.
Image credits: Maine State Police
No suspects have been identified in connection with the case. A large-scale search operation, which included tracking dogs, helicopters, and interviews with neighbors, failed to find any trace of the teen.
Years earlier, in 2015, the girl’s parents had lost custody of their children for six months after they were arrested for public intoxication, child abandonment, and possession of a controlled substance in their native Texas.
The mother, Lisa, served 18 days in jail, while Dale served 21 days.
Image credits: After She Was Gone/Facebook
In 2021, the family relocated to New Sweden, the rural Maine town, for a fresh start.
Over the past months, Dale has been posting YouTube videos addressing neighbors and law enforcement officials.
Last month, he threatened to burn down homes in New Sweden and told police he would no longer cooperate with them.
“One of you is going to end up laying on your back with a bullet in you when you come up my driveway,” Dale warned on March 18 on his channel, Stefanie Damron’s Family Response Page.
Image credits: Dale Damron/Facebook
“I’m not making threats,” he said. “I’m making sure that when I have to do what I have to do and one of you come down my property and I feel threatened and I have no choice and I cannot progress, you will be flatlined.”
Addressing one specific neighbor, the father mentioned that he owned different firearms. “I pull the trigger on my AR-12 and I got 10 rounds coming down. All 9 millimeter. I’ve got a Mauser that’ll drop you from a mile away.”
The 48-year-old father recorded himself talking to Jared Sylvia, the lead Maine State Police investigator handling the case, informing him that he would not cooperate with the investigation and mentioning that he had a semi-automatic firearm.
Dale criticized law enforcement for its handling of the case and questioned why he and his wife had not been declared innocent.
“For a year and a half, my family has been hung out to dry,” the father told Sylvia in a video. “I’ve never hid nothing. And you guys never went on national TV.”
During the conversation, Dale mentioned that the “general consensus” in the town is that his family fed Stefanie to the hogs, and accused law enforcement of failing to appear on national TV to dispel that rumor.
Image credits: Dale Damron/Facebook
“You guys are standing on the outside of the ring of the fire like, ‘We can’t do nothing.’ And you expect us to keep cooperating with you?” he said.
“You come to my house, have a warrant, or stay at the property line and call me. It’s that simple. I’m literally having to leave my house openly carrying an AR-12.”
In the caption of the video, the father wrote, “We have asked again and again for a public statement confirming that my family had nothing to do with her disappearance. We have been fully cooperative from the beginning.”
Image credits: FBI
He said he and Lisa had “answered every question, passed polygraphs, and did everything that was asked of us.”
The father accused law enforcement of failing to take action to help his family’s “reputation.”
Dale also told police about his theory that Stefanie had been strangled by a handyman who buried her under cement and lime in the basement of the house he was remodeling.
“Look at the pictures of it now. It’s been scrubbed,” he said of the alleged crime scene. “And you guys never even offered to turn that floor over or anything. But I’m going to deal with him.”
The Texas father referred to his past violent behavior and insisted that he had changed.
“I married my wife and made promises to my wife that I would never be that man again because that man would have kicked your door in, burnt your house down and done lovely things to everything in your property. But I’m not that man no more.”
Image credits: FBI
At the time of her disappearance, Stefanie and her older sister, Star, were living in a remote yurt with Richard Turgeon, an 80-year-old family friend known to the girls as “Grandpa,” as per The Daily Mail.
Dale and his Lisa lived a mile down the road in a trailer with their four younger children.
At one point in the investigation, Dale and a family friend Andrew Losiewicz reportedly told police that Stefanie may have been involved with an older man whom she contacted using Turgeon’s phone, but no evidence was found to support the claim.
A neighbor of the Damrons who spoke on condition of anonymity with The Daily Mail said locals are “concerned” about Stefanie and the “steadily increasing amount of violent rhetoric and threats” coming from Dale.
“We care a lot about Stefanie and her disappearance and we aren’t forgetting her, but our immediate worry now is for the safety of members of our community. Dale has crossed some lines with his violent speech.”
Speaking with Dateline last year, Lisa described her daughter’s disappearance as “the worst nightmare that you wish you could wake up from.”
“I just wanna know where my baby’s at. I just want my baby home.”
Image credits: Stefanie Damrons Family Response Page
Lisa said her daughter was very familiar with the woods near her home and that the family heard a vehicle pass by shortly after Stefanie ran off, though nobody saw it.
The mother of six told the outlet that there had been two other instances in which Stefanie had run off, but Lisa always found her and brought her home.
Investigators reportedly found a single footprint thought to be Stefanie’s on the roadside near her house.
Image credits: Stefanie Damrons Family Response Page
Stefanie was described as having brown, shoulder-length hair, green eyes, and being approximately 5 feet tall. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeved blue shirt, and black hiking boots.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the safe return of the teen and/or information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in her disappearance.
Image credits: Lisa Damron
Maine State Police released this statement on the investigation, “The Maine State Police remain committed to finding answers and will continue to actively investigate until Stefanie Damron is located.”
Anyone with information about Stefanie’s whereabouts is asked to call the Maine State Police Houlton Barracks at 1-800-924-2261 or (207) 532-5400, contact the FBI’s Toll-Free tipline at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or you submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
Bored Panda has reached out to the Maine State Police for comment.
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