Authorities in North Yarmouth, Maine, Wednesday spent a third day searching for an elementary school teacher whose husband said she disappeared with only some missing footwear to show for it. Jay Westra said his 47-year-old wife Kristin must have slipped out of their home in the darkness of the early morning hours after she said she recently had trouble sleeping. "She expressed that she had had some sleepless nights and was worried," Westra told NBC News. In fact, Westra said, his wife had gone to see a "licensed clinical nurse practitioner" Sunday, the day before she was reported missing. Westra said he's a pediatric oncology nurse at Maine Medical Center's Children's Cancer Program. "There was a safety assessment and Kristin was not at risk for any harm to herself or anybody else," he said. Kristin Westra was captured on a neighbor's security video camera returning home from a jog about 6 p.m. Sunday, according to NBC News affiliate WCSH. Her husband said she turned in at 8 that night. He awoke at 3:30 a.m. Monday, checked his phone, and noticed that Kristin was not in bed. "I thought maybe she had gone to another room to another bed to sleep," he said. Later, Jay Westra said he noticed that a back entrance to their home "was slightly open." "She may have left the back door [open] not trying to wake anybody up," he said. Westra said it would have been odd for his wife to wonder off overnight. He said that although she had "trained for many marathons and half marathons" it would have been abnormal for her to try to run on a cold, rainy morning before the sun rose. What's more, he said, he believes some footwear is missing — "either a pair of running shoes or a pair of flip flops that are not here." He got into his vehicle and drove to familiar areas of town in an effort to find his wife, but ultimately Westra enlisted the help of authorities Monday, he said. Friends of the teacher set up a website to solicit information on her wherabouts. Her brother said on Facebook that "we are getting swamped with calls and texts" from well-wishers but that "all we can do right now is give our support and love to Jay Westra" and the couple's children, a 10-year-old daughter and a teenage stepson. "I told my daughter that sometimes adults have stress or worries or anger and just like she would, sometimes adults need time to think," Westra said. Capt. Scott Stewart of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said eight detectives as well as Maine State Police and the Maine Warden Service have been enlisted to help search for Kristin Westra. "We're searching everywhere that we may think she may be, may have gone, may have liked," the captain said. "We're still investigating this as a missing person, looking for a positive resolution." Stewart called Jay Westra "more than helpful. More than anybody would expect." Game Warden Corporal John MacDonald said in a statement Wednesday that the search had gone off-road. "Nearly 50 trained search crews, K9's, ATV’s and drones were used to cover varied terrain that included wetlands, thick forest and open fields," he said. "Still no clues have been provided or detected to indicate Westra is in the woods," he said. "Her vehicle and other personal belongings were left behind at the residence," he added. "This remains the only clue that Kristin Westra might be near her North Yarmouth home." Jay Westra urged his wife to "come home" and said that whatever prompted his wife to go missing can be overcome. "We've always taken care of everything," he said, "and solved every problem."<doc-sep>Kristin Westra, an elementary teacher at Chebeague Island School in Maine, was reported missing on Monday morning by her husband A Maine teacher and mom of two vanished from her home late Sunday or early Monday and her husband says he awoke to discover her gone and her phone, car and keys left behind at their home in a rural area of North Yarmouth, PEOPLE confirms. Asked if authorities suspect foul play in the mysterious disappearance of 47-year-old Kristin Westra, an elementary teacher at Chebeague Island School, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Capt. Scott Stewart tells PEOPLE, “We’re not leaning in that direction. Usually we would have found her by now.” Get push notifications with news, features and more. “There’s a lot we don’t know,” Stewart says. “Usually we’ll have a better idea to lead us in one direction or another, but unfortunately right now we can’t rule one avenue out as opposed to another.” Jay Westra, Kristin’s husband, said he last saw his wife about 8 p.m. Sunday when the two went to bed at their home, which sits on a wooded lot along Lufkin Road home in North Yarmouth, about 14 miles north of Portland, according to authorities. When Jay awoke the next morning, Kristin was nowhere to be found, police said. “It is not known if she has a vehicle or why she would be missing,” the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said in a missing-persons alert. Authorities also aren’t sure when Kristin left her home, what clothes she was wearing, where she might have been headed or why or if she was wearing shoes. Says Capt. Stewart: “We don’t have a lot to go on, is the problem.” 20181002_missing_0796.jpg Authorities search for missing Kristin Westra in North Yarmouth, Maine | Credit: Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty 20181002_missing_0623.jpg Authorities search for missing Kristin Westra in North Yarmouth, Maine | Credit: Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty The “complicated search” of the surrounding area, which is wooded with heavy undergrowth, was further obstructed by “very foul weather” on Tuesday, Stewart says. About 70 searchers — including those with the Maine State Police and civilians with the Maine Association for Search and Rescue aided by trained dogs — have covered about two miles around Kristin’s home since she was reported missing by her husband about 9 a.m. Monday. Although the family has neighbors, the homes are several hundred feet apart, Scott says. Kristin’s brother, Eric Rohrbach, said she did not have a history of mental illness and did not take medications that might have altered her behavior, although authorities offered a theory that she may not have been thinking clearly and believed she needed to flee her residence, reports the Portland Press Herald. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. “It’s incredibly surreal. It’s something out of a nightmare,” Rohrbach said, according to the newspaper. “It’s a horrible situation to think that she’s immobilized somewhere in the woods. But there’s a huge party searching for her.” He said his sister — who has a 9-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old stepson — recently dealt with the twin stresses of ongoing remodeling and renovation at both her school and the family’s home. “When she comes home, [they] don’t have a place to relax,” Rohrbach told the Press Herald. “They were like eating dinner in the garage. Kristin is someone who likes to come home and curl up with a book, and she couldn’t do that.” 20181002_missing_0146.jpg Authorities search for missing Kristin Westra in North Yarmouth, Maine | Credit: Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Kristin had plans with friends and a doctor’s appointment scheduled for Monday, her brother said. But her husband told Rorbach that she was restless trying to sleep Sunday night, Rorbach said. Police surmise she may have just walked out of her house. “It was raining and she left without her keys, without her car, without her phone. And we think she was wearing flip-flops,” Rohrbach said, according to the Press Herald. “She does a lot of yoga and she does a lot of running, but she doesn’t do it at that time of night. And if she did, the Kristin I know would have told Jay or brought her phone.” Kristin is 5-foot-10-inches tall, weighing about 140 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes.<doc-sep>The body of Kristin Westra, 47, was found on Friday. The death of a Maine teacher who was reported missing on Monday has been ruled a suicide, according to local authorities. A body found Friday morning in a wooded area roughly 500 feet off Gray Road in North Yarmouth, Maine, has been identified as 47-year-old Kristin Westra, who was last seen by her husband, Jay Westra, last Sunday night. The Cumberland County Medical Examiner ruled Kristin Westra's death a suicide, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office announced Sunday. Her cause of death was not released. Jay Westra reported his wife missing Monday morning after he woke up and discovered she was not home, Cumberland County Sheriff's Capt. Scott Stewart told ABC News Tuesday. He last saw her before he went to bed that night, after she returned home from a jog, Stewart said. Kristin Westra's brother, Eric Rohrbach, told ABC News that she had trouble falling asleep Sunday night and that her husband assumed she was going to try and sleep in an empty room when she got out of bed around 3 a.m. When Jay Westra woke up, he "realized she wasn't there," Rohrbach said. Rohrbach said his sister had been under "some stress" due to work and home renovations but described her disappearance as "very abnormal," and said she didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol. "The thought of her doing this to her family is completely out of the norm," Rohrbach said. When Jay Westra attempted to call her cell phone Monday morning, it rang inside the house, Rohrbach said. She did not have her keys or wallet, he said. Kristin Westra was an elementary school teacher and mother to a 9-year-old daughter and 16-year-old stepson, Rohrbach said, calling her a "pillar in her community." Dozens of volunteers searched for Kristin Westra earlier this week. Cumberland County Sheriff's Capt. Craig Smith did not disclose who located the remains or in what condition they were found.<doc-sep>Craig Sjodin/ABC THE BACHELOR - Six years ago, Arie Luyendyk Jr. was in love and a day away from proposing to the woman of his dreams. And then, she broke his heart. Emily Maynard (now Emily Maynard Johnson) may not have been Arie's future wife, but he hasn't been able to find a love like hers since. Now Arie, 36, is back and ready to race into America's heart yet again when he returns for a second shot at love, starring in the 22nd season of ABC's hit romance reality series "The Bachelor," premiering MONDAY, JANUARY 1 (8:00-10:00 p.m. EST), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Craig Sjodin) REBEKAH<doc-sep>
A body has been found in a wooded area of Maine amid a search for a missing elementary school teacher who is said to have vanisned in the dark of the early morning hours earlier this week. Capt. Craig Smith of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said it's too early to confirm any possible connection to the case of Kristin Westra, 47. In fact, Smith said he did not know the gender of the deceased. A medical examiner was at the scene, the captain said. Despite the lack of official information, the woman's husband, Jay Westra, said on Facebook Friday afternoon, "My heart was crushed today." The discovery, reported at 10:30 a.m., was made about a half mile from the couple's home in North Yarmouth, Maine, according to NBC News affiliate NECN. Westra said his wife disappeared after turning in about 8 p.m. Sunday. He said he awoke and noticed she was not in bed at 3:30 a.m. Monday but figured she went to bed in another part of their home after she had experienced some "sleepless nights" recently. She appeared to have vanished without a phone, keys are wallet, family members told NECN. When he woke up Monday, Westra noticed his wife was gone and went looking for her before notifying law enforcement, he told NBC News Wednesday. Authorities launched multiple searches during the week that included treks through the woods near the Westras' residence. First responders on the case included eight sheriff's detectives, Maine State Police officers, and law enforcers from the Maine Warden Service, authorities said. "Nearly 50 trained search crews, K9's, ATV’s and drones were used to cover varied terrain that included wetlands, thick forest and open fields," Game Warden Corporal John MacDonald said in a statement Wednesday. Westra said he's been trying to reassure the couple's two children, a 10-year-old girl and a teenage stepson. "I told my daughter that sometimes adults have stress or worries or anger and just like she would, sometimes adults need time to think," he said.