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Search Continues for Missing 12-Year Old Vermont Girl; Uncle Under Investigation

John Eagan/AP

There is still no sign of the missing Vermont girl who was last seen on Wednesday, and her family is getting desperate for information.

12-year old Brooke Bennett is from Braintree, Vermont, one town over from where she disappeared.  She was last seen on surveillance video walking away from the Cumberland Farms in Randolph Wednesday morning.

Police say she convinced a relative to drop her off at the store to get a ride to visit a sick friend.  But police say she really went there to meet a person whom she had been communicating with online through the popular social networking site MySpace.  Police do not know who that person is at this time.

K-9 teams searched the area near the Floating Bridge in Brookfield after family members found Bennetts' personal items near there.  And 'Missing' signs have been hung at several businesses throughout the area.

Her father says she set up her first my-space account under his supervision, but he pulled the plug on it a couple of months ago after he learned about some of her activity on it.  She apparently later set up another account from a different computer.

ABC 6 reporter Julie Ruditzky has the details...

AP Update:  Forty-two-year-old Michael Jacques, of Randolph, has been arrested on unrelated sex charges developed as part of the
investigation into Brooke Bennett's disappearance.
     
Police plan to search Jacques' property today with dogs and by air.
     
Jacques, who is married to Bennett's mother's sister, was charged with aggravated sexual assault against a minor - the victim wasn't Bennett.
     
The arrest came as the result of information uncovered by investigators assigned to the disappearance. The victim wasn't identified.
     
He was being held at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, pending an arraignment in Orange County District Court today.

Wednesday, Jul 2 at 6:11 AM Shelby Townsend, Hope Mills, NC wrote ...

Two questions: Where is Brooke's mother and why don't we hear from her? Next, Could the uncle be the mystery man on Brook's My Space?

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