The Disappearance of Stefanie Damron (Maine)

Stefanie Damron’s parents say that their 13-year-old daughter walked out the door and into the woods one September afternoon in 2024, and she hasn’t been seen or heard from since. They have their own suspicions about what happened to her, but so far, a multi-agency effort hasn’t been able to prove what happened to Stefanie more than a year later.

Active missing persons cases are some of the most challenging cases to cover. At the same time, active missing persons cases, especially when a child is missing under suspicious or concerning circumstances, are the cases that need the most urgent attention. Uncovering information while leads are still warm is critical.

That’s why I’m releasing two episodes today. These two missing persons cases out of Maine need a signal boost in a big way. So please, listen, share, and get their names and faces out there. Investigators need more information to bring them home.

An Argument

All we know for sure about the disappearance of 13-year old Stefanie Damron was that she was last seen on September 23, 2024 and there have been no credible sightings since. Stefanie’s mother and father reported her missing the very next day on September 24th but despite extensive investigation and search efforts by Maine State Police, the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, other state agencies, and local volunteers more than a year later, Stefanie has yet to be located.

While both State and Federal authorities continue the investigation into Stefanie’s disappearance, there has been a concentrated effort by concerned community members to get more attention on this case. I’ve received dozens of requests to cover Stefanie’s story and get it out to a wider audience, so that’s exactly what I’m doing. 

Stefanie’s family, including her father Christopher Damron (who sometimes goes by Dale in select media coverage) and her mother Lisa Marie Damron, have made public statements and given interviews to various media outlets and social media platforms regarding their recollections of the day their daughter disappeared and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. But Stefanie’s family has also been the subject of intense scrutiny and at the center of online rumors and speculation. 

The family’s versions of events that I’m about to share with you cannot be verified with law enforcement, as they’re keeping this case exceptionally close to the vest so as not to jeopardize the ongoing investigation. For that reason, you’re going to hear the phrase “According to [insert family member’s name]…” a lot because it’s the only way I can cover this case. And it very much needs to be covered. 

So, according to Christoper and Lisa, it all started with an argument on September 23, 2024.

In an extensive livestreamed interview with the Locating the Lost Podcast, Christopher Damron said that on the afternoon of September 23, 2024, he and his wife Lisa were in Presque Isle, Maine for a job interview at the chain restaurant Ruby Tuesday’s. Lisa told Dateline NBC reporter Nicolás Viñuela that they left four of their children, including Stefanie, at home in New Sweden with their grandfather that day.

Around 3 o’clock that afternoon, while Lisa and Christopher were still in Presque Isle, Lisa got a text message from her oldest daughter, reportedly sent from the grandfather’s phone. The oldest daughter’s name is public in other sources, but for privacy reasons I’ve decided not to use her name and will refer to her as ‘the oldest daughter’ or ‘the oldest sister’.

Lisa’s daughter said in the text that Stefanie had walked into the woods after they got into an argument about something and she hadn’t come back yet. According to Christopher, the oldest daughter was going over to their neighbor’s house to see if she could find Stefanie there, and he assumed that if Stefanie had in fact gone to the neighbor’s place, she’d probably stay there until they got home to sort out whatever disagreement the girls were having.

Lisa didn’t find the situation worrisome at the time either because Stefanie often turned to the woods when she was upset or wanted to be left alone. All of the Damron children were comfortable outdoors and could find endless entertainment in the woods surrounding their remote home.

Christopher said that he and Lisa got home around 5:30 that night to find that Stefanie wasn’t at the neighbors, nor had she returned home yet from wherever she went. They started looking for her, but again, Stefanie’s family was not super concerned yet because they say Stefanie had done this before at least twice.

Christopher and Lisa have said that they turned over every stone for their daughter, driving all over the place to see if they could find her, but the entire night passed without Stefanie. Her family reported her missing the next day, September 24th, 2024. Christopher was under the impression that he had to wait 24 hours to report Stefanie missing, but even still, he called at 11 a.m. the next day, shy of the 24 hour mark. He knows now that there is no minimum time requirement for reporting anyone missing, especially a child.

Media alerts began days later with photos and a description of Stefanie. She is a white female, 5-feet tall, 130 pounds with green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. She was last known to be wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeve blue shirt and black Harley Davidson hiking boots. The earliest information regarding her disappearance from Maine State Police indicated that she was last seen on September 23rd when she walked out of her house and into the woods behind her home in the small rural town of New Sweden, Maine.

About Stefanie & Family

As of September 2024, the Damron family lived between two dwellings in New Sweden, Maine, one of which was situated on a large plot of land on West Road where Stefanie stayed with her older sister and her grandfather.

The grandfather you’ll keep hearing about is not a blood relative, by the way, but he is known as the grandfather to the Damron children, and Christopher refers to him as his own grandfather, too. According to the Team Stefanie website, the grandfather is a close family friend and he has lived with or been close to Stefanie and her family nearly all her life.

There’s also another close friend of the family referred to as ‘Uncle’ Andrew, although he is not a blood relative either. The Team Stefanie website clarifies that he met the Damron family when they moved to Maine and he helps them out with amenities, like a generator for their home. He also allows members of their family to live on his property in a fifth-wheel camper while they work to improve their home. 

The Damron’s home where Stefanie was living at the time of her disappearance is described in some sources as a yurt, and Christopher clarified that while technically it is a yurt, a more accurate description is a hexa-yurt. It’s constructed with OSB building material as a legitimate dwelling with multiple rooms. 

The Damron’s had moved to Maine from Texas in search of an environment better suited for their way of life. They value the privacy and peace that comes with living off the grid, and their children (including Stefanie) are homeschooled. Maine felt like the right place for their family. According to Christopher, moving out of Texas was also meant to put some distance between them and painful memories of an incident back in 2015.

According to arrest logs printed in The Jacksonville Daily Progress on September 12, 2015, Christopher (who was 38-years old at the time) and Lisa (who was 37) were both arrested on charges of abandoning/endangering a child, possession of a controlled substance, and public intoxication. Christopher explained this arrest in an interview, saying that he was smoking weed in a car with his children present which resulted in both he and Lisa temporarily losing custody of their children. He stated that custody was reinstated six months later, which he says is sooner than it usually happens because they did everything they could to prove their fitness as parents.

It wasn’t the last time that Child Protective Services in Texas and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services: Child and Family Services division would be involved with their family. Christopher said that because of their lifestyle, Child and Family Services made regular visits to their home. He claims that each time, they passed whatever inspections were needed to prove a suitable environment for the kids.

So, when Stefanie was reported missing, Child and Family Services was also brought into the fold. Within a few weeks, several other three letter agencies joined the effort to find her, too, including the FBI.

Stefanie’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.