Swampscott search centered in Salem

SALEM – Nearly 100 police from across the state converged on the woods at the junction of Salem, Swampscott and Lynn Wednesday but found nothing in their search for 25-year-old Jaimee Mendez, a Swampscott mother reported missing Saturday.Meanwhile, the woman’s family conducted their own search, but held out little hope.”They know that she’s not alive, so they just need a body back,” Olivia Ayott, Mendez’s cousin, claimed Wednesday. “I think that’s why they stepped it up.”Jaimee Mendez, 25, was reported missing by her family on Saturday afternoon. Police said the family last saw Mendez Thursday at around 6:40 p.m. Mendez later was in the company of a man whom she said made her nervous, and she called a friend to come and pick her up, the family said. The friend showed up, but Mendez was nowhere to be found, the family told reporters.Salem, Lynn, Swampscott and State Police all joined the search for Mendez Sunday, reportedly recovering her phone and jacket from a Salem industrial park and searching a dumpster behind a CVS on Eastern Avenue in Lynn.The search intensified Wednesday, with SWAT vehicles, K-9 Units, and police cruisers from towns as far as Pepperrell traveling among locations in Salem, Lynn and Swampscott.The search started and finished from out of the Salem industrial park off Danvers Road. But police also searched on the other boundaries of the woods behind the industrial park. A dive team searched an area by Manson Road, which is near the home of the man – a Level 3 sex offender – with whom Mendez was reportedly last seen. K-9 units also checked woods by Camp Fire North Shore in Lynn. Meanwhile, Mendez’s sister searched Lynn Woods, the family said.Michelle Mendez, Ayott and other family were at the Manson Road location Wednesday afternoon as the search ended around 3 p.m., picking ticks off each others’ clothing and trying to figure out what to do next. They asked that residents continue to keep an eye out for Mendez, distribute her picture, and share any information they may have about the alleged incident with police.”We want her home, we want this over,” Julie Iwanicki said. “We’ve been in woods, I mean, everywhere.”And Michelle Mendez said that she didn’t think her daughter was alive, despite everybody telling her that she should keep up her hope.Meanwhile, Salem Police Chief Paul Tucker said the search was conducted in an area with “very difficult terrain,” including swamps, woods, and slopes.”We’re trying to bring some resolution to this and to bring some comfort for the family,” Tucker said Wednesday afternoon. “But as of this time, nothing of any evidentiary value was found.”