Police search N.B. house near missing girl's home

More than a dozen police vehicles surrounded a home Tuesday on the Eskinuopitijk First Nation in northeastern New Brunswick, the same community where a 16-year-old girl went missing two months ago.

Hilary Bonnell was last seen in the morning on Sept. 5, walking along Highway 11 in Eskinuopitijk, commonly known as Burnt Church. She had been attending a party with friends the night before.

On Tuesday, 15 police vehicles, including a forensic identification vehicle, surrounded a home several metres away from where Bonnell was last seen. Sources told CBC News the home belongs to Christopher Bonnell, Hilary's uncle and a band councillor.

RCMP Insp. Roch Fortin said no one has been arrested and the Mounties had obtained a search warrant for the property "to investigate a Criminal Code violation."

He said it would likely be a lengthy investigation that could last several days or several weeks, and that officials had the co-operation of band council members.

A tent was pitched on the property and dozens of officers could be seen going in and out of the house wearing white forensic suits.

People in the community have been gathering in a convenience store parking lot two doors away from the house since early Tuesday afternoon. The girl's mother, Pamela Fillier, was among them and said she is still hoping to find her daughter alive.

"I got my fingers crossed," she told CBC News. "I just want my little girl to come home safe and sound, that's all I want."

Amy Barnaby, a friend of Fillier, said people are anxiously watching the investigators do their work.

"Everybody is in tears and people are praying and just hoping that we find Hilary alive.That'sthe hope," she said. "But the greatest fear is that she's not. And everybody's just waiting to see what happens."

After the official search for Bonnell was exhausted in September, her friends and family members continued the hunt. The band council offered a $15,000 reward to anyone with information leading to her safe return.