A Maine woman has been found safe four days after she vanished from Times Square when she got into a yellow cab with man and two women.
Christine Hammontree, 29, was reported missing to the Falmouth Police Department in Maine where she lived with her family on May 25 after she failed to return home from visiting the Big Apple with her boyfriend.
Hammontree was found in the Queens borough of New York City after she went drinking in Manhattan and took an Uber to a hostel, police sources told WNBC.
She has been taken to a local hospital as a precaution though no foul play is suspected, the outlet reported. It is unclear what she was doing during the days she was missing as family and friends frantically searched for her.
Falmouth, Maine police released this photo, which was May 21, the last time Hammontree was seen before getting into a car in New York City
Falmouth police released this image of Christine before she went missing, taken at a McDonald’s in Times Square
The NYPD’s CrimeStoppers has released images showing Christine Hammontree, 29, who went missing in Times Square
Hammontree was supposed to fly home from LaGuardia Airport on Monday but she told her family she was staying in NYC, the NYPD told DailyMail.com.
Instead of getting on the flight, she was last seen on surveillance footage from a Times Square McDonald’s getting into a car with unknown people.
The Falmouth Police Department said in a press release on Friday that Hammontree ‘has been located safely and in good health in New York City.’
Sources with knowledge of the investigation had told WNBC that she was last seen interacting with people at the McDonald’s while drinking cocktails.
Her phone last pinged in the theater district around 4am Monday and nobody was able to contact her for days. She was reported as missing by her parents on Tuesday.
Hammontree then entered a yellow cab with a man and two other women, according to WABC. It remains unclear if that car, its driver or other passengers were tracked down by police.
Falmouth police Lt. Jeff Pardue told CentralMaine.com that Hammontree used to live in New York but had moved in with her parents in Falmouth.
Pardue told the outlet that cops have spoken with Hammontree’s boyfriend, who was not identified, since her disappearance. CentralMaine.com reported that Pardue declined to answer if the boyfriend had also lost contact with her.
Investigators searched through cellphone information and bank activity in order to find her, Pardue told the outlet.
Hammontree’s disappearance was investigated by detectives with the Falmouth Maine Police Department since her address is in Maine with the help of the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies.
Falmouth, Maine police posted this statement on Facebook around 1pm Friday
Hammontree was described as 5’9″ in height with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing an oversized blue T-shirt with cut off light blue jeans and sandals, while carrying an orange backpack
Friends have posted pictures of her with her mask on to help find Hammontree
Judy Hammontree, her mother, told WNBC that she believed her daughter was in ‘grave danger’ and said her and her daughter ‘never go a day’ without texting each other. She hadn’t heard from her since Saturday when she told her mom she was fine.
The concerned mom saw the surveillance tape and says neither she – nor Christine’s friends – recognize any of the people.
‘Christine just started a new job that she was very excited about. She hasn’t worked and has not been in touch with any family or friends which has never happened in the past,’ a statement released by her family Friday said in part.
Police in Falmouth, Maine, where the Hammontrees live, released the final known photo of Christine around 1pm Friday.
In the photo, she was wearing a baggy, light blue shirt with a picture of a sun with a face on it, what looks like a Fitbit or Apple watch on her left wrist, an orange backpack, cut-off light blue jeans, sandals and her hair in a bun.