March 26--Lebanon County District Attorney David Arnold has given the go-ahead for a New Cumberland search and rescue team to scour Memorial Lake for the body of a missing Palmyra woman.
Arnold said he received a call shortly after 5 p.m. Monday from New Cumberland River Rescue asking if the organization could volunteer its services to search the northern Lebanon County lake for Kortne Stouffer, who was 21 when she went missing in July 2012.
Arnold had been under public pressure to search the lake since Friday, when a South Lebanon Township woman told PennLive that acquaintances had told her Stouffer had been dumped in the lake after being killed in her Palmyra apartment.
Arnold has consistently dismissed 26-year-old Amanda Ballester's story, citing inconsistencies, and said her claims did not justify the expense of a search of the lake, which is on Fort Indiantown Gap property. But he welcomed the offer from New Cumberland River Rescue.
"I have no opposition to searching the lake," Arnold said Tuesday. "It made sense to accept their offer. I think it's wonderful that they're offering their services. We will do whatever we can to help them to accomplish the search."
Chris Zeigler, dive commander of New Cumberland River Rescue, said Tuesday that the next step for the organization is to coordinate the search with various authorities, including the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and develop a plan before the team starts the search.
"We want to make sure we are as organized as we can be," he said. "We want to make sure we have the right equipment and the available manpower (to do a proper search)."
Zeigler said the organization hopes to start the search in the next week, but a specific date has not been set.
"We're still in the planning stages," he explained.
The search could include camera and sonar equipment, he added.
"We'll photograph and document our findings," he said. "We're going to be as meticulous as we can be."
Zeigler said the team will inspect the lake before the dive to "have a game plan, where's the best place to get in and out" of the lake. The search could take several days, he added, and the organization wants to make sure it has enough manpower to do the job.
The lake will be closed to the public during the search, he said.
Arnold still has some concerns about the dive. In past cases that required similar searches, he said, dive teams have been willing to do it, but they wanted some assurances that there is a valid reason for a search.
"The water (in Memorial Lake) is barely above freezing temperatures now," he said. "It's dark and murky water, which makes it difficult to search. There's always a danger of a diver getting snared on branches, fishing lines or other debris in the lake."
Zeigler agreed there are challenges.
"It's not too deep," he said, "but people do fish. There could be fishing lines or fallen trees."
In the meantime, Arnold told the Daily News on Monday that Ballester agreed to talk to Lebanon County detectives.
"We have to make decisions based on facts, reasoning and common sense," he said.
After talking to Ballester, Arnold said, he is more convinced that the information she has given detectives isn't true.
"We want to find Kortne as much as the family," he said. "We continue to investigate. But we won't jump on something based on information that we know isn't true."
Stouffer vanished from her apartment at 810 W. Main St. in Palmyra between 3:45 and 7:30 a.m. Sunday, July 29, 2012. She was last seen officially when a borough police officer responded to her apartment for a disturbance involving a neighbor at 3:12 a.m.
There is a $50,000 reward for information that leads to finding Stouffer. Anyone with information that might be helpful should send it to [email protected] or call Palmyra police at 717-838-8189 or Arnold's office at 717-228-4403.
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