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Chelmsford calls off lake search
By JACK MINCH, Sun Staff • Lowell Sun

CHELMSFORD -- Police officers and firefighters searched for a possibly missing woman for four more hours using underwater cameras in Freeman Lake yesterday but found nobody.

Police do not believe anybody drowned in the lake but were responding to concerns that a swimmer may not have made it back to shore Monday. No missing-persons reports had been filed by surrounding towns, and no one has come forward to say it was them in the lake.

An area resident spotted a woman swimming in the lake, and a set of clothes were later found on the beach. A beachcomber also said he saw the woman but left while she was still swimming.

Police officers searched Monday until about 9 p.m., then resumed the search yesterday about 7 a.m., using a special camera loaned to the department by the North Billerica company Julius Kraft Co.

The Portable Vision Stick has a camera on one end and a monitor on the other so officials on the boat could study the bottom.
The Fire Department used another camera, loaned by the Wilmington Fire Department, Fire Capt. James Durkin said.

“It works really well,” he said.

Boats crisscrossed the water in front of the beach as a front-end loader replenished the sand. Then they worked near the dam.
Police said they will continue to check the lake on a regular basis to make sure a body doesn't surface.