One of America’s most secluded regions is in the grip of fear due to concerns that a serial killer could be at large after the disappearance of three women near a desolate roadway.

Residents of Aroostook County, Maine, have been rattled following the disappearances of Attiin Shaw, 36, Stefanie Damron, 14, and Tomis Hoyt, 36. 

Shaw vanished in September 2021, Damron in September 2024 and Hoyt in July of this year.

The isolated county lies just a few miles from the Canadian border, with its sparsely trafficked roads interspersed with occasional remote cabins or homesteads.

Acres of dense wilderness encompass those brave enough to withstand the isolated area, with fuel limited and no public transportation available. 

In this area, roads like Route 161 can go days without seeing a vehicle, and with no public transportation available, it presents an opportunity for anyone with harmful intentions to commit a crime.

Such desolation has only exacerbated the intensifying anxiety and fear surrounding the mysterious disappearances which have gripped those living in the area. 

With little information about the cases available, locals have also speculated that the cases could be related to drug or sex trafficking across the border. 

Shaw and Damron disappeared just ten miles apart, with three years separating their last sightings. Hoyt disappeared two months ago and still remains unaccounted for. 

Damron vanished from her family’s home in New Sweden after she was last seen on September 23 of last year walking into a woodland area near the property. 

According to her father Dale, his daughter had gotten into an argument with her sister before deciding to make off into the woods. 

 Her parents were away at the time and only some of her siblings and her grandfather were inside the home. 

Speaking with WGME this week as the one year anniversary of her disappearance rolled around, Dale said his daughters disappearance was so sudden and unexplained that it feels as if she’s suffered an alien abduction.

According to the FBI, the family were brought up in the dense woodland and lived largely off grid, with the children being being homeschooled. 

It wasn’t unusual for Damron and her siblings to wander throughout the woods for hours at a time but they would always reappear, the bureau said.   

Her father dale said: ‘It literally, for a lack of better words, it was like aliens had abducted her. 

‘You can’t change the pain when you don’t know and that’s what kills us, we don’t know.  Did she do it on her own? Was she get kidnapped? Is she in the ditch? 

‘Is she shacked up with somebody? Did she get pregnant, not want to tell us. There’s so many, and that’s what kills us we don’t know. We need to know.’

She is described as being a white female with green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair, standing 5 feet tall and was last seen in blue jeans a long sleeved blue shirt. 

Investigators with the bureau’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team and the Maine State Police hunted the dense woodland for her. 

They covered thousands of acres but she has still yet to be found, their search even took them across the country and into Canada as they followed up on leads.

Aroostook County’s proximity to the Canadian border presents another potential challenge if the women have fallen victim to foul play.

Any killer or killers could have taken them out of their local jurisdiction, making a hunt and subsequent criminal investigation much harder.  

As one year passes, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for any information leading to Damron. 

In Shaw’s case, the 36-year-old, a native of Indonesia, moved to the town of Washburn with her husband and their four kids in 2020.

She was last seen in September of 2021 inside her home and suffered from bipolar disorder, one friend told NBC News. 

That same friend told the outlet that Shaw, who was 33 at the time, would frequently leave her home after an outburst to calm down, some times for days at a time. 

She and her husband Mike had a rule that should she go without returning for a month, he would then contact police to report her missing. 

Since then there has been no activity on her passport or her social security number, with Maine State Police saying there is no evidence that she is living elsewhere. 

Maine Police said that she was last seen leaving her home in Washburn on foot, and has never been seen again. 

Hoyt, a mother of two, was last seen on Sunday July 13th in the Mars Hill area walking down a road before vanishing. 

Her family made a public appeal for information two weeks after that when investigators told them every lead they had brought them to a dead end. 

Rici Hoyt, her sister, said: ‘If someone is housing her, you can call in anonymously, you can do your part.’

Surveillance footage shows her on the day she disappeared wearing a tank top and ripped jeans, she also didn’t have anything on her feet. 

The family said she had previously struggled with addiction and mental health problems but was 9 years sober at the time. 

The sudden cut off is unlike her, the family said as they added: ‘For the love of god, come home. We want you to come home, Tomi. 

‘We want you to come back to New York with me. We’ll get you into treatment. They will take care of things. Come home, Tomi.’

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss said: ‘Detectives continue to investigate and follow up on leads’, when asked about the cases.