Search continues; authorities say time not on their side

Throughout the day Tuesday, Newport police and rescue workers combed the same stretch of the French Broad River Bank they've been searching for three days in hopes of finding some sign of 19-year-old Megan Maxwell.

The Newport teenager was last seen at her father's house early Sunday morning.

Authorities found her car empty, and on fire, just a few hours later near the part of the river they're now searching.

Family and friends, who looked on from picnic tables all day Tuesday, have about as many answers to this mystery as they had three days ago when it all began.

They admit the wait for news of any kind is getting harder for them as the hours tick away.

"She told me she was coming home, and she didn't," Maxwell's best friend, Holly Lane, said. Lane was the last person to hear from Maxwell during a phone call around 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

"I just don't know what to do," Lane said.

Just feet away, the French Broad River flowed with seemingly endless water that investigators believe may hold the answers Lane and others long for - but they are answers that, so far, search and rescue boats have been unable to churn up.

"As time passes, this thing doesn't look good," said Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults.

The intermittent noise of boat motors and a tracking bloodhound helped take attention away from the noise in their heads while family and friends waited for news.

"Pray, cry, try to not think about it. Walk around, thinking I'm going to find something. We've been everywhere. I just don't know what to do except wait," Lane said.

"[We just want] something, anything," said Maxwell's friend Gene Warren.

"Because no one knows anything. Where she's at, where to look at. They've been here forever," Maxwell's friend Kyle Valentine said.

"Just hoping she's going to call somewhere or something," Warren said.

The past three, painful days have clouded years of fond memories.

"We used to make cooking shows, because we had a video camera. We'd goof off and make milk shakes all the time, and Mom would yell at us because we'd make a big mess," Lane said. "This isn't supposed to happen."

Authorities held a strategy meeting Tuesday evening to decide whether they should stay in the same area or move on.

"Every indication is we're going to find some kind of evidence right close to this river that will help us bring this case to an end," Chief Shults said.

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Newport Police Department at 423-623-5556.