FALLS TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- For more than a month, a family from across the country has been traveling to our area, helping to search for Haley Lorenzen in Wyoming County.
Police say she was murdered. Her body has not been found.
As chunks of ice floated down the Susquehanna River, flowers hung over the frigid water along the Route 92 bridge near Falls. The community-wide search for Haley Lorenzen continues.
"If you saw the river today, it's got pancake ice on it," Lake Winola Fire Company Fire Chief Gene Dziak, who is also heading the search efforts said. "The river is up. It's up about three feet under flood stage. We can't effectively do anything with that kind of condition. We are not giving up on this."
According to police, Lorenzen has been missing since late December. In early January, Phillip Walters was charged with the 24 year old's death. A woman then came forward and told investigators she helped Walters dump Lorenzen's body in the Susquehanna River. Court papers show those three may have been involved in a love triangle.
"We're still in shock at what has happened," Lorenzen's aunt, Traci Dominguez said. "It's unbelievable that a human being can do that to another human being."
Lorenzen's disappearance has hit the area hard. The suspected murder victim's family has had to travel to Wyoming County from Oregon twice since her disappearance.
Feeling the family's grief, hundreds of people from the community gathered at Ardee's Foodrinkery on Sunday for a benefit dinner to raise money for Lorenzen's family.
"We are very overwhelmed by the kindness, and we are very gracious at all their kindness, love, prayer, support," Dominguez added. "We have extended family here."
Lorenzen is originally from Oregon and didn't move to Wyoming County until November 2018. Many people at the benefit didn't know her, but that didn't stop supporters from lining the streets and packing parking lots.
"I don't think any of us who organized it had ever met the girl," said Rick Wilbur, one of the organizers for the event. "It's just such a touching story. It broke our hearts."
As for when that search will continue, officials say it all depends on the weather. Search crews tell us a new camera system was just purchased with the hopes that it can help find Lorenzen's body.