HERMON, Maine — A Thursday search for a Bangor woman missing since 1980 failed to turn up her remains, but police also combed the area for trace evidence related to her disappearance.
Sharon Smith was 25 years old when she was reported missing Sept. 4, 1980.
Investigators from Bangor Police Department, Maine State Police and the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office descended on 147 New Boston Road early Thursday morning after obtaining a search warrant to excavate the front yard of the home. Smith’s former boyfriend once lived at the address.
A small excavator dug up several feet of earth in the front yard in the area where a shed that had been converted into a house used to stand, according to Bangor police spokesman Sgt. Tim Cotton.
The building was torn down decades ago, and the ground today holds a few rose bushes and a small vegetable garden. Investigators combed through the dirt with rakes and trowels looking for any potential evidence.
The excavator dug up the garden, bushes and surrounding lawn looking for Smith’s remains or any other evidence related to the case throughout Thursday morning. A cadaver dog combed the mounds of dirt trying to pick up a scent.
Investigators plucked a few pieces of shredded plastic out of the hole and had the dog sniff them. Evidence technicians also collected jars of dirt and other debris from the area. At about 1:30 p.m., the excavator operator began scooping dirt back into the hole.
Police brought a cadaver dog to the property last week and used a ground-penetrating radar to try to determine whether anything lay below the surface. They returned Thursday with a warrant permitting them to dig.
It’s unclear what new information prompted the search Thursday. Court officials wouldn’t release records related to the search warrant Thursday, and the attorney general’s office referred all questions to Bangor police.
Members of the Gilks family own and live on that property. Police have interviewed them on occasion since 1980 because they believed George Gilks may have been involved in Smith’s disappearance, according to George Gilks’ brother, Jim Gilks, who lives at the home.
George Gilks died in 2006 at age 57, according to his brother.
“Never could have happened here,” said Jim Gilks as he and other family members watched the excavator dig. “This has been gone over and gone over.”
Jim said George Gilks moved from Hermon about age 16 and went to Carmel. He only came back, Jim Gilks said, to ask for money from the family.
Kathy Gilks said George Gilks also abused alcohol and drugs.
George Gilks dated Smith, who worked as a dancer at Paramount Lounge on Harlow Street, for about a year before the relationship ended, according to Kathy Gilks.
Kathy Gilks also alleged a former boyfriend saw Smith in a vehicle in Levant weeks after her disappearance, but claimed this alleged sighting was not thoroughly investigated by police.
“I don’t think she’s alive, but I don’t think George had anything to do with it,” Kathy Gilks said.
Edward Thorne, a retired Bangor police detective, said Thursday’s search was in part conducted in response to an anonymous letter investigators received that lead them to New Boston Road.
Thorne said he worked on the Smith case in the 1990s, after Smith’s daughter approached police. In 1999, when George Gilks was still alive, cadaver dogs searched a property in Carmel for evidence related to the case.
He had told reporters Thursday morning that he hoped the digging would uncover Smith’s remains and “finally bring some closure” to her family.
“Even after you retire, you tend to carry these ones with you,” Thorne said of missing persons cases.
Smith’s case is one of five ongoing missing persons investigations in Bangor. The others reported missing are Roderick Hotham, 62; Richard Morse, 44; William Hilderbrand, 28; and Michael Regan, 34.
BDN writer Ryan McLaughlin contributed to this report.
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