Missing woman featured in ‘Without a Trace’ PSA found

Laura Mackenzie, an 18-year-old woman missing for five months, was located Monday in St. Augustine Beach, Fla., after she was seen by a man who said he recognized her from a public service announcement featuring Mackenzie during the June 1 broadcast of the CBS Thursday night drama Without a Trace.

Mackenzie, who is from Goffstown, N.H., disappeared on March 8, the day she was scheduled to face shoplifting charges in Manchester, N.H., District Court. Based on the tip that came into the Hillsborough County N.H. Sheriff’s Office on Monday, Aug. 7, which was forwarded to authorities in Florida, police were sent to an apartment building in St. Augustine Beach, Fla. where they found Mackenzie, who was arrested without incident.

This marks the fourth time a missing person has been found (five people total) following a Without a Trace PSA. In May, 2006, Kristy Ormsby, a 26-year-old woman missing for two years, was located in Jackson County, N.C., after she was featured in a PSA during the show’s May 4 episode and on a news segment on CBS’s The Early Show on May 5; in April 2006, an 18-month-old girl was recovered in Tarrant, Ala., following profiles of the child in Without a Trace and The Early Show; and in July 2005, 8-year-old Nicholas Antonio Candela and his 7-year-old sister Gio’ Annah were located in Tuckahoe, N.Y., after a Without a Trace viewer provided information to the FBI.