Police search for missing public official and firefighter in Dover
Authorities say 49-year-old Ryan Courtien was last seen Sunday morning near his home on Waldo Road.
More Stories
State troopers, firefighters and state forest rangers are looking for a public official who vanished from his yard.
New York State Police say Ryan Courtien, 49, went out to do yard work Sunday morning and never came back inside, prompting a call to police and a large search operation in the area of Old Pawling Road.
Several more agencies arrived at the staging area Monday to assist in the search for Courtien, a former Dover town supervisor of eight years, the current Dover planning board chairperson and a volunteer firefighter.
Police said Courtien went out to his yard at around 9:30 a.m. Sunday and has not been seen since.
He left his cellphone and other personal items inside the home.
"We're doing everything we can to try to find our friend and member," said current town supervisor Richard Yeno, who has worked closely with Cortien on government matters and at the RC Ketcham Fire Company, which is involved in the search.
Yeno said he last had contact with Courtien Sunday morning just before his disappearance.
"It was just town business and then 'See ya later,'" Yeno said, "and that's the last I heard from him."
The staging area grew throughout Monday as more agencies arrived.
Several trailers full of equipment and ATVs from the New York State Division of Homeland Security arrived late Monday to assist. They are searching swamps, ponds and hiking trails.
"It's pretty remote. Cellphone service - terrain, it does make it quite difficult," State Trooper Krystal Paolicelli said Monday, adding that neighbors might be able to help. "We're asking the public to check any Ring cams, any surveillance footage that they might have. No tip is too small to contact New York State Police Troop K headquarters with any information."
Courtien is also a math professor, an ardent supporter of nature preservation along the Appalachian Trail and the father of a college student.
Courtien was last seen wearing tan pants and a black T-shirt.
Anyone with information that might help find him is asked to call State Police immediately at 845-677-7300.
Trooper Paolicelli said the search operation is so large because of the odd circumstances around Courtien's disappearance, not because he is a public official.
