The search for an Eastern Connecticut State University student missing since last month came to Ansonia this week.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 20-year-old Alyssiah Wiley has attracted statewide attention since state police announced she was missing April 26.
Wiley’s mother, Corrinna Martin, spent Tuesday and Wednesday evenings canvassing Ansonia neighborhoods spreading the word about her daughter’s case.
Martin said that while her daughter didn’t have friends or family in Ansonia, it is an “area of interest.”
“It is a very personal connection, I can say that,” Martin said in the parking lot of the Big Y on Main Street, where she met with others involved in the search. “It has everything to do with her disappearance, but not with Alyssiah herself.”
Martin urged anyone with information about her daughter to call state police at 860 – 685-8190.
Reports published Wednesday by the Hartford Courant, WFSB, and others indicated Ansonia’s Coe Pond was one of several bodies of water in the state that would be searched in connection to the case.
Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale said Wednesday afternoon he hadn’t been told of a water search, but referred further questions to state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance.
Vance, in reply to an e‑mail, said: “Still working case.”
Wiley was reported missing by state police April 26.
But she was actually last seen April 20. She last spoke with family a few days earlier.
Click here to read a press release regarding Wiley’s disappearance.
In the past weeks Martin and others have searched Meriden’s Hubbard Park and Bridgeport’s Beardsley Park for signs of Wiley.
Martin said she canvassed Ansonia’s Hubbell Avenue neighborhood Tuesday afternoon with a handful of friends and volunteers.
Though the canvas didn’t turn up any concrete leads, she said she is just glad her daughter’s case is staying in the public eye.
“It was just a day of spreading the word, getting the word out, keeping awareness heightened,” Martin said.
The Ansonia canvas continued Wednesday in the Liberty Street and Olson Drive areas.
Martin was joined in Wednesday’s efforts by Kathleen Ceccarelli, a Stratford resident whose daughter started the year as roommates with Wiley.
“Her daughter is a very serious student,” Ceccarelli said. “There was no way I couldn’t help.”
Though classified as a missing persons case, Martin believes something sinister happened to her daughter.
“This is not the typical missing persons case. She’s not missing. She was taken,” Martin said. “She has been halted in living a very wonderful life and halted from spending time with the people that she loves.”
“That’s the reason why we won’t stop until she comes home,” Martin said. “She deserves to continue living, loving, and prospering the way she has been.”
Martin said her search for her daughter will continue toward the end of the week again in the Hubbard Park area of Meriden and the Beardsley Park area of Bridgeport.
An Awareness and Prayer March is also scheduled for May 18 at 4:30 p.m.
Click here for more information on the search from a Facebook group Martin created.
