Sarah Goode's family, police appeal for help finding her

A young Medford mother never returned home after a night at a friend's house Friday, but her car was found two days later at least a mile from where she lives, Suffolk police said Monday.

Sarah P. Goode, 21, disappeared under what detectives call "suspicious" circumstances, and her family Monday joined police in appealing for the public's help. Friends Monday night searched for her in the woods near where her car was found.

Dozens of family and friends also searched for Goode Monday night in Medford. They looked in trash bins and banged on doors of an industrial storage unit complex on Cedarhurst Avenue and called Goode's name. They shined flashlights as night fell.

"It's sad and it's scary. You hope she walks home," said Michael Fitzsimmons, a friend.

Justine Santini, a friend who was part of the search, said Goode wouldn't just leave her child. "She wouldn't just vanish," she said. "Mothers don't just vanish. People just don't leave their babies."

"We are desperate to find her," Elizabeth DeMuria, 36, said before directing a plea to her sister to come home. "We love you. . . . We just want you to come home safely."

Goode, a medical technician in Patchogue with a 4-year-old daughter, was last seen about 1 a.m. Saturday at a friend's house in Shirley, police said.

Sixth Precinct Det. Sgt. Michael Fitzharris said detectives were looking at Goode's cellphone pings, but declined to detail what police know about her movements Friday night into Saturday, including whether she left her friend's home alone.

"We're looking at a million different things," he said in an interview. "The thing that troubles us is the entire circumstances surrounding a 21-year-old Long Island girl that obviously needs her car and loves her car, and her car is found not near her house, late at night, unoccupied, parked next to a wooded area. This was very contrary to her normal behavior. She's very close to her family, which is large, and she has a 4-year-old daughter."

About 8:30 p.m. Sunday, her family reported her missing, and as investigators were taking down information, Goode's gray BMW, a 1999 328i model, was found alongside woods near Fire and Watch Hill avenues, Fitzharris said.

Nothing suspicious was found in the BMW, he said.

"Her family is very concerned, and we want to find her," Fitzharris said.

Sunday night, officers and a police dog searched the area where Goode's car was found and they continued doing so Monday, police said. The car was taken to the police impound yard in Westhampton.

Police said there was no indication Goode was involved in anything illicit.

Goode, the youngest of nine children, had attended business school after graduating from Longwood High School.

She is described as 5-foot-3 and 100 pounds, with long brown hair and brown eyes. She has a flower tattoo on one foot.

Police said anyone with information could call the Sixth Squad at 631-854-8652 or Crime Stoppers, 800-220-8477.