UPDATE: Human remains found in Lee; believed to be Meghan Marohn, missing NY school teacher
LEE — A larger-than-life photograph of Meghan Marohn now graces two area billboard messages, part of an effort to keep her disappearance in the public eye.
Marohn’s brother, Peter Naple, purchased space on the Center Street outdoor advertisement board and one on the Pittsfield-Lenox Road in Lenox, near Burger King.
The billboards are an attempt to ensure Marohn’s disappearance doesn’t fade from the public consciousness. She has been missing in Lee since late March.
A group of state police, Lee Police and Lee Fire Department members head out to a new search location near the Janet Longcope Park trailhead on Church Street in Lee during a search for Meghan Marohn.
“People had recommended I do billboards and it was on my radar. As the search continues, this keeps Meghan on people’s minds,” Naple said.
The billboard messages inform those passing that the Delmar, N.Y., woman was last seen March 27. She is described as 5-foot-6, weighing 120 pounds with auburn hair.
Naple last spoke with his sister on the last Saturday in March, after she checked into the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge for a weekend getaway. It was their last talk before Marohn, 42, an English teacher, poet and activist, went missing.
The next day, residents spotted her black Subaru in the trailhead parking area at the 46-acre Janet Longcope Park in South Lee. On March 29, seeing that the car hadn’t been moved, police began searching the Church Street area. Marohn was an avid hiker and the park has a marked loop trail.
The first two weeks saw almost daily searches in the South Lee area by local and state police, other first responders and Berkshire Mountain Search and Rescue.
The number of searches, according to Naple, have been scaled back, with the next one scheduled for Thursday.
Lee Police Chief Craig DeSantis said there have been no “significant developments” in the search.
Meghan Marohn, who has been missing for nearly two weeks, is shown here writing poetry for her Troy Poetry Project.
“The matter remains under investigation and other incidents in the in the county involving searches for evidence or missing persons have no connection to the Meghan Marohn case,” he said.
Two weeks ago, Krisann Rufo, 52, of Lenox, was found dead near October Mountain State Forest. The Berkshire District Attorney’s Office said there was no foul play involved. Last week, the FBI led a search of the Housatonic River in Sheffield for the body of an out-of-state person, sources have told The Eagle, but the search came up empty.
Naple says he has conducted his own unsuccessful search for his sister.
“It’s been frustrating. She has just disappeared. Just finding her car and having some cell phone information is all the clues we have and that’s the frustrating part,” he said.
Naple says he and others who know Marohn may now have to face a grim reality.
“Everything points to the woods and that likely she is no longer with us. But I still hope to find her alive,” he said.
Police said this week they do not believe there was foul play involved with Marohn’s disappearance and that there is no evidence to suggest the public is in danger.