By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
It has been over a week since 45-year-old Donna Lee Sweeny went missing and while her family and friends hold out desperate hope that she will be safely found, the Halifax Regional Police said Monday morning that there is still no trace of her.
In comments on this newspaper’s website, and also on Facebook, people have been praying that she will be located. If she has access to these messages, people have been urging her to contact family or friends to let them know she is okay.
“Prayers are being said all over for your safety and well being. You are loved by many family and friends,” reads one comment.
“There are a lot of people who are hoping you are ok, they are very worried about you…so please get in touch with them and let them know you are ok,” reads another.
Sweeny was reportedly last seen around noon on Feb. 3, when she left her Dartmouth home to walk to a friend’s house a few streets away. She never arrived.
Without much to go on the police have appealed to the public for help in finding Sweeny, who grew up in Yarmouth County and has family and friends here.
“We have had no tips so far from the public on any sightings of Mrs. Sweeny,” Constable Pierre Bourdages told the Vanguard on Monday morning, Feb. 11.
“Our beat members in the area spent the day yesterday distributing flyers with Mrs. Sweeny’s picture door-to-door and have also distributed some to nearby businesses,” he said, saying additional resources have been employed in the search, including the dog unit, helicopter surveillance and a search of nearby areas on foot.
Two investigators from the Halifax Regional Police’s vice unit, which looks after missing persons, have been assigned to the case.
The police have said that Sweeney left her Second Street residence in Dartmouth on foot to visit a friend on Lakecrest Drive, which is just a short distance away.
“It’s a very short walk, you’re talking a five or 10 minute walk at the most,” said Cst. Bourdages. “Unfortunately she left her residence around noon on Feb. 3 and we were only contacted in the middle of the night, early morning of the 4th, so more than 12 hours after. At the time there was a big snowstorm going on in Halifax, we got almost 25 centimetres. Although we had canine on the scene to try to follow a track, it was very hard because of the weather conditions.”
The police said early on they had no reason to suspect foul play, but they have been concerned for her well-being because she had a medical condition that requires daily medication.
The police are requesting that Sweeney or anyone with information on her whereabouts call them at 902-490-5020.
Reads another comment left on our website, “Words can't explain how we . . . feel, we hope and pray that you are safe. Your family and friends need you and love you.”
And yet another comment, “Praying for you, Donna. Please be found.”
