Elderly Maryland woman feared to have fallen to her death on Maine mountian

STOW, Maine - After a lengthy search through the night, a volunteer searcher working with the Maine Warden Service discovered the body of a missing 78-year-old Maryland woman early this morning.

Barbara Goldberg, 78 of Potomac, Md., had gone missing during the middle of the day on Friday while on a hike on Blueberry Mountain in Stow. Her partner, Steven Plotkin, had dropped her off at 9 a.m. and had talked to her via walkie talkie at 1100 a.m. Goldberg told him she was almost to the summit and expected to be back to the Stone House Road Parking lot around noon. When Barbara didn't appear at the designated meeting area by 2:30 p.m., Steven contacted 911 and reported her missing.

Game wardens began searching the area shortly after 3 p.m. A warden service airplane searched from the air, and the warden service expanded the search quickly bringing in volunteers from MESARD (Maine Search and Rescue Dogs), Saco Valley Fire Department, Lovell Fire Department, Fryeburg Fire Department, Fryeburg Rescue, Mahoosuc Search and Rescue, Center Conway Fire Department and Denmark Fire Department.

After searching alongside and over all area trails and nearby roads, a MESARD K9 located Barbara's walkie talkie during the night near a ledge near the summit on Blueberry Mountain. Using Barbara's Ipad that her partner had retrieved that night from their rented cabin, Wardens were then able to locate her Iphone coordinates utilizing the "find phone" feature.

After searching the rough terrain and strewn boulders at the base of the ledges, at around 3 a.m. today is morning a MESARD volunteer recovered her body by calling her Iphone, then following the faint sound of her phone. She was located at the base of the ledges deceased. Her body was transported to Woods Funeral Home in Fryeburg where she will be examined by the State Medical Examiner.

Her death is not considered suspicious.