MERCER COUNTY State police pursue new ways to find woman after four years

A new criminal investigator has been assigned to the case.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police said they have launched some different investigative strategies in an attempt to find out what happened to Sandra K. Baker four years ago today.
May 25, 2000, was the last time anyone saw Baker. Neither she nor her car, a blue 1988 Honda Accord with Florida registration EQ762E, have been seen since.
No information has ever developed about her whereabouts, said Cpl. Scott Patterson, noting that includes no contact with any friends or relatives or any paper trail that would indicate she was alive and spending money or traveling somewhere.
The case is officially listed as a missing person, but the probe is going forward as a homicide investigation, Patterson said Tuesday.
Baker was last seen at the Sheetz convenience store at 8:47 a.m. May 25, 2000, with her fianc & eacute;, William Crea.
Reported her missing
That was a Thursday, and Crea reported her missing the next Monday. He told police that she had called him later in the day Thursday and told him she was in some kind of trouble and would contact him later. He said he never heard from her again.
Police recently reviewed the case and came up with some new investigation recommendations, said Trooper Michael Kokoski, declining to be more specific about police plans.
Patterson said a new criminal investigator, Trooper William Peterson, has been assigned to handle the Baker case.
"There's someone out there with knowledge of what happened to Ms. Baker," Patterson said.
Linda Henry, who said she was Baker's best friend for 20 years, has spearheaded the public effort to find out what happened to Baker.
She renewed her efforts again Tuesday, putting up new posters with Baker's picture that ask for any information about the case.
"I feel I'm her voice because she doesn't have family here," Henry said, adding she appreciates efforts of the state police to find out what happened to her friend.
Baker, who would be 52 now, was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds at the time of her disappearance She had blond hair and brown eyes.
There is a reward of $7,000 for information about her disappearance.